


Something Real They Took From Me

by Moonbeam (luvsbitca)



Series: The Catalyst Ship [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: A lot - Freeform, And that farmhouse was their retirement plan, Coulson and Barton are married, Fitz and Mack should have their opportunities too, I forsee lots of lab sex, I'm personally right behind them doing it, M/M, Mack and Fitz have an honest conversation, Nat and Coulson have facial expression conversations, Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Skye is mentally scarred by the possibility of Coulson having hot sex with Clint, in many fun places, past-Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes, pre-Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-29
Updated: 2016-05-20
Packaged: 2018-06-05 06:37:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 21,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6693427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luvsbitca/pseuds/Moonbeam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve finds a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. base that he believes is now a HYDRA stronghold. The Avengers storm the place but instead of HYDRA they find a man who should be dead and the reincarnation of S.H.I.E.L.D.</p><p>Clint, especially finds this very hard to understand. With a side of FitzMack because of the awesomeness of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Infiltration

**Author's Note:**

> Been going through the MCU in preparation for CACW which I’m seeing tomorrow. This is almost completely finished. Just two more chapters at the end but I wanted to at least start posting before I saw the movie.  
> This is canon-compliant for Age of Ultron except there was no wife or kids at the farm, and up to the season two finale of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. except for the last moment when Simmons gets sucked through the portal.  
> It’s really mostly a ClintCoulson fic but I couldn’t resist FitzMack because I loves them…loves them SO HARD!

**Something Real They Took From Me**  
by Moonbeam

Steve Rogers asked FRIDAY to bring up the information he had been collecting with the help of the A.I. system. He was learning to use technology and computers but having FRIDAY help him in the hunt for HYDRA and, more privately, Bucky, felt more like being back hunting down HYDRA in the war with the Howling Commandos. Just with a disembodied voice instead of his team. He was endlessly thankful that he had woken up in a time when he could take advantage of Stark's technology. If he had had to navigate technology under his own hands it would have taken him even longer to learn – and FRIDAY taught him how to use the laptop he'd bought with almost no judgement just the hint of snark that Steve had to admit he found comforting. He turned to face the team: Clint, Natasha, Sam, Vision, and Wanda. He knew Tony would have a screen up in his workroom as well. Rhodey was on assignment with the Army but this didn't need the War Machine.

"I've found another HYDRA base, used to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. site," Steve said. FRIDAY was displaying the information he'd been compiling. "I came across it looking for something else but when FRIDAY accessed Hill's records there is no evidence that this site remained in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s control. There are significant movements around the base. With Strucker's death there was one less head for HYDRA to follow but that never seemed to last for long."

"Where?" Natasha asked.

Steve started breaking down all of the information he had on the base; location and possible entry points. They didn't need the whole team – hunting down the remaining parts of HYDRA was Steve's way of keeping busy…and a way of coping with his frustrations over the hunt for Bucky.

"This seems like something we could hand to the One-Eyed Zombie," Tony's voice floated out through the intercom.

"I could," Steve said. "But, practical experience is good for the team."

"Who are you taking?" Clint asked.

"Anyone who wants to come."

"I'm in," Natasha said, shifting in her seat to look at Clint.

"Me too," Clint said, nodding at Natasha.

"I shall go with you," Vision told him.

"I have a mission with Maria in a few days and need to prepare," Wanda said. "Next time."

"Then I suppose I'd better come," Tony said. "When are we going?"

"Tomorrow, wheels up at 1800 – if my intel is correct, the workers live on base, but at that time they should be in recreational time and the security will be more concentrated to those areas," Steve said. "We will land here," FRIDAY put up the map. "Natasha and Clint will go in first using the duct system – which seems to be quite generous. Once they have infiltrated, the rest of us will come in – this wall appears to be the weakest entry point, if you can get us through, Tony?"

"I can," Tony said, obviously offended by Steve's comment.

"Then we will go in as soon as Clint and Natasha have established entry."

The next day, at 1800 they boarded a quinjet headed to the base that Steve had found. Clint and Natasha slipped off as soon as they landed, headed for the ventilation entry point, while the rest of the team moved into position.

"Why can't I just blow the wall straight away?" Tony asked, bouncing a stress ball in his hand – the suit standing at attention behind him.

"Because if there the people inside of the base are non-threatening there is no need and Fury can take it over. If we're wrong and someone other than HYDRA is in there we need to know before we blow a hole in the wall. Clint and Natasha are our first set of eyes. That is why you can't blow the wall."

Tony huffed. "You really are a think first kind of guy."

"That's not a bad thing." Steve pointed out.

"But that is the exact opposite of Tony Stark's psychological impulse in this situation," Vision pointed out.

"This is definitely a military level base," Natasha said through the comms.

"I've found the corridor coming off the entry point," Clint said. "I'm going in."

"You have a go," Steve said.

They listened while Clint swung down into the corridor and waited.

-)(-)(-)(-


	2. Storming The Base

**Storming The Base**

Mack missed the time he used to spend in the lab with Fitz. He understood why the other man could barely stand to have him in there – he didn't trust Mack anymore. But sometimes he needed Mack's help. After everything with the Inhumans and the carrier at least they could be in the lab together now without it being as uncomfortable. It just wasn't them anymore and Mack missed it. He hoped that one day they might make it back to being friends but he knew anything more was wishful thinking. But, for this moment in time it felt good to be standing next to Fitz and focussed…mostly focussed, on a blueprint in front of them.

"You need to…to…around the outside," Fitz said, waving a hand at the item that Mack was putting together for him.

"Weld it?" Mack asked.

"Too firm…unyielding…too…."

"Rigid."

"Yes, that," Fitz agreed. "Secure but moveable."

"I can do that," Mack said, looking at the pieces of metal and then pausing when Fitz's stomach growled loudly. Every gesture of friendship he'd tried since he came back to the base had been met with rejection, but that didn't stop him wanting to look after Fitz. "I can bring some tools down after dinner if you like, we could go and get something to eat and then come back. I have a few ideas about a hinged bracket."

"It would need to be the full…not width, the other…"

"Length?" Fitz nodded. "So it would need to be air tight?"

"No, but closed."

"I think I can do something like that," Mack agreed, then thought he would try again. "Dinner?"

Fitz's stomach growled again and even if he had been about to turn Mack down, he didn't, nodding and grabbing his tablet instead. "Steak."

Mack smiled brightly. "Steak it is."

Fitz started out of the lab, leading Mack, they were halfway down the hall – heading to the smaller of the two kitchens. They were walking quietly when they both froze, hearing something above them. Mack took two steps back, reaching out to snag the back of Fitz's sweater, when the air duct in front of them swung down with a muffled crash. A man dropped down and into the hallway, bow in his hand when he landed and arrow knocked before Mack had time to react. The moment he saw the arrow, he reached out, swinging Fitz behind him, and pushing the other man back towards the lab.

"Stop," the man yelled but Mack needed Fitz to be safe.

The other man might still not trust him but that would never stop Mack from _needing_ Fitz to be safe. He pushed the scientist into the secure lab as the arrow imbedded itself in the door jamb next to him. Mack slammed his hand down onto the contamination button and span around to face the intruder. He was shorter than Mack, not hard, wearing protective glasses, a faintly purple knee-length sleeveless coat, and was holding the bow like he knew more ways to kill with it than May knew ways to break a human body. Mack held his hands up, the man looked vaguely familiar now that Fitz was safe and Mack could focus on the him. The contamination alarms would get everyone down here fast and Mack just had to hope that May and Bobbi got here before Simmons and the other scientists.

"Everyone will be here soon," Mack said, folding his hands behind his head. "Then you are going to regret trying to break into this particular facility."

"I really don't think I'm going to be the one regretting anything," the man said, just as a red-headed woman slipped down into the room behind him.

"How many of you are there up there?" Mack asked, catching something coming down the corridor next to him. He didn't risk turning his head when he saw something short and black clad – it must be May, or possibly Skye – too short for Bobbi, too sleek for Simmons.

"How many of you are there in here?" the redhead asked, eying him in the same way May eyed everyone except Coulson.

"Romanoff?" May asked, stepping carefully around the corner.

"May?" the man asked, swearing and tightening his hold on the fletch of his arrow. "You're HYDRA? Thank God Coulson's dead."

"Coulson's not dead," Mack said without thinking.

May swore at the same time as the man with the arrows turned on him, eyes darkening. "Yes, he is."

"What's going on?" Coulson's voice floated down the hallway and Mack watched as the man in front of him tensed up completely. Coulson turned the corner, wary but not worried and then he spotted the two people in the hallway he stopped, freezing, eyes flicking between Romanoff…Mack stopped paying attention to what was happening in front of him because he knew that name. That name was famous at S.H.I.E.L.D. and if she was Romanoff, then the guy with arrows had to be Barton, and they were Avengers. There was _Avengers_ breaking into their secret base. Mack came back to the situation when Barton dropped the bow, ignoring the way it landed loudly on the floor and walked forward to grab Coulson's shoulders.

"Who are you?"

Coulson grimaced. "I'm Phil Coulson, and I can explain."

"You can't be Phil Coulson. He wouldn't allow me to think he was dead if he was here in a secret base…unless, Jesus Christ, you're HYDRA? Sitwell was bad enough but how could you have lied to me for all of those years, Phil?"

"I am not HYDRA," Phil said immediately. "I couldn't tell the Avengers about being alive. And that includes you and Tasha now. Fury's orders."

"Fury?" Barton asked.

"After S.H.I.E.L.D. fell, he tasked me with rebuilding S.H.I.E.L.D. as what it is supposed to be. We aren't HYDRA, we're fighting them."

"Fury forbid you from telling the Avengers?" Romanoff asked.

"Yes, you could never know. I am sorry you both thought I was dead, but it was for the best, really."

Romanoff walked over, and punched Coulson so hard he fell down – out cold.

"Romanoff," May chastised.

"Don't you start," Romanoff said, pointing at May. "You might have been my S.O. for a time, May, but that is not Phil Coulson."

"Shit," Skye said, running down the corridor behind Barton who was staring down at Coulson like he'd been punched right along with the other. "What did I miss?"

Barton and Romanoff turned around and spotted Skye, Simmons, Hunter, and Bobbi all rushing down the corridor.

Mack turned at the bashing on the door behind him, Fitz glaring at him.

"Someone needs to…to…the opposite of what he did," he said, his hands balling into fists at the frustration.

"What happened to Coulson?" Hunter asked behind him.

"I was trying to save you," Mack said, walking over to the door and entering a code.

"I knocked him out," Romanoff explained. "That is not Phil Coulson."

"It is so," Skye said.

Fitz nodded. "I know you were protecting me, why didn't you come in here _with_ me."

Mack rubbed at the back of his neck and shrugged. "Didn't think you'd want me to."

Fitz put in his code to the door and the air released loudly.

"Why don't you think it's Coulson?" Hunter asked.

"Coulson wouldn't lie to Clint about being dead on anyone's orders – not even Fury's." Romanoff said.

Fitz walked out of the room and punched Mack on the arm. "Of course I'd want you to save yourself as well. Next time you come in with me."

Mack nodded, a flicker of hope lighting in his chest at Fitz's words, and then followed Fitz as the other man turned around to take in the rest of the group standing in the corridor. Barton was still staring down at Coulson dumbly. Skye was standing very close to Romanoff, and May was watching the whole scene with something resigned and cautious – like she was expecting explosions and death in the very near future.

Romanoff put her finger up to her ear and looked down at Coulson. "Not HYDRA, apparently, but everyone better get in here now."

"Everyone who?" Bobbi asked.

"The Avengers," Mack guessed. "Coulson was talking about not being able to tell the Avengers he was alive. Before Romanoff decked him."

"Romanoff," May said, finally stepping forward and into the situation. "We need to speak…privately."

"No," Clint said, coming alive suddenly and startling Skye who was standing next to him staring down at Coulson. "No private conversations. I want the truth."

No one had time to say anything else as there was a loud bang at the end of the corridor and Captain America, Ironman, a purple man, and…

"Sam?" Mack said, surprised and a little confused to see his old college roommate in the hallway.

"Mack?" Sam asked, elbowing Captain America out of the way to walk towards the taller man. "What are you doing with HYDRA?"

"We are not HYDRA, buddy," Mack said, hoping that one of them was eventually going to believe them.

"We're the reincarnation of S.H.I.E.L.D.," Hunter offered, eyeing the new group with a half-smile.

"And they have a Coulson imposter," Romanoff said, taking a knee next to Coulson and feeling around his neck behind the ear. She didn't find what she was looking for and stood back up with a frown. Coulson groaned and shifted awkwardly.

"What do you mean?" Captain America asked, striding forward. Mack watched Captain America walk past him and realised that he could look down at the other man – he was taller than Captain A-fucking-merica. His life was strange. "Coulson's dead."

"And yet, I see him," Romanoff said.

"He was dead for eight seconds," May said. "Or forty, depending on when he's telling the story and then he was saved. But, by then, you all knew he was dead and were saving New York."

"That doesn't explain why we couldn't have been told he survived afterwards," Captain America said.

"FRIDAY," Iron Man said aloud to the group, like that should make sense. "Scan Agent."

A female voice came flowing out of the Iron Man suit and Mack stared. "Human, broken and healed right tibia, three healed ribs that didn't set entirely straight, a number of other healed injuries. 95% are what is in my records from the last scan of Agent from the Stark Tower, three years, two months, and four days ago. And the ha-"

"And Artificial Intelligence programme," Fitz said standing up on his tiptoes and using Mack's elbow to keep steady. It was the first time Fitz had touched him since that day in the Server room and Mack froze. He nodded stupidly and Fitz pulled away.

"And the remaining five per cent," Clint asked interrupting the voice, turning to look at Iron Man and away from Coulson for the first time.

"All healing places them as recent injures, Agent Barton," the female voice said.

Barton turned back to Coulson who had finally come around enough to be trying to sit up. Skye crouched down next to him and started helping him, until he was sitting and looking at the Avengers standing in front of him.

"I deserved that, Tasha," Coulson said, blinking. "But I still regret teaching you that particular move."

"I already knew it," Romanoff said. "I just let you think you taught me something."

Coulson smiled. "I know."

"Who are you?" Captain America asked, standing next to Romanoff. Mack wasn't sure how he did it but he wanted to confess to the man and he wasn't even the one being questioned.

"Captain Rogers," Coulson said, spine straightening as he slipped into the _Attention_ stance. "It's nice to see you again."

"How dare you?" Barton spat out.

"Barton," Coulson said, turning to the man. "I am sorry about the lie, but I couldn't tell the Avengers I was alive."

"Fuck the Avengers!" Barton hissed. "What about me?"

"Barton, you know I couldn't tell you, you're an Avenger."

"And your husband, you couldn't tell your _husband_ you were alive because he's an Avenger?"

Mack was almost certain the only people not shocked by those words were Romanoff and May – Romanoff because she just started glaring harder, and May because she flinched. Mack would have just kept staring dumbly at the people in front of him but Fitz slapped his arm and Mack turned to look at him for a moment but Fitz was riveted to the situation in front of them. Mack turned back around and looked at them. Coulson was blinking slowly at Barton, Barton was breathing heavily as he stared at Coulson, and everyone else was staring at one or the other of them. Then people started reacting.

"You let your husband think you were dead?" Skye asked, voice hurt.

"Husband?" Iron Man asked, the mask sliding back and off. "You and Agent were married…what about the Portland cellist?"

"I'm not married," Phil said calmly, voice so sure that Mack began to think Barton was insane.

Barton shook his head. "Yes, you are."

"He doesn't remember," May said quietly.

Everyone turned to look at her.

"I didn't know until later that you didn't remember being married to him," May said quietly. "And then the…then it looked like T.A.H.I.T.I. might be taking over your brain."

"T.A.H.I.T.I.?" Barton asked. "You said that was dangerous and you had shut it down."

"Fury resurrected it, to resurrect me." Coulson said. "I told you about it?"

Barton nodded.

"That was Level 10." Phil said, confused.

"You don't remember?" Clint asked. "How? Why would he do that?"

"T.A.H.I.T.I. sent people mad," Coulson explained. "Knowing you died, or the alien DNA-"

"Alien DNA?" Captain America asked.

"Project T.A.H.I.T.I. used a serum derived from the ancient deceased body of an alien race known as the Kree to resurrect the dead. I was dead for days, the longest of any subject. The only success they had against the madness was a memory…married?" Coulson stopped and stared at Barton.

"What do you remember?" Barton asked, instead of answering the question.

"Missions, a lot of missions. I remember feelings for you but nothing ever came of them."

"They certainly did," Romanoff said. "I wasn't about to sit through you two flirting for over a year without throwing you into a room and leaving you there until you'd worked through all of the sexual tension."

Coulson started looking angry, and since he normally just looked carefully blank, Mack knew it was bad.

"I need to do something," he said, and then turned and walked away.

"What?" Barton growled, and then started after Coulson.

Mack looked at Skye, his eyes flicking to Captain America who looked just as unsure, and then to Fitz who grabbed his arm.

"The…it's a thing that touches the brain to…to open it…no, to…to…to," Fitz growled in frustration and started rubbing his eyes.

"Fitz, just take a deep breath and-"

"No," Fitz said, grabbing his wrist and dragging him along the corridor. Mack didn't fight against him and Fitz started moving faster. Mack could hear the rest of the group following behind them as they wound through the corridors and slid to a stop in front of one of the labs. Barton was in the lab, banging on the inner door. Coulson was lying down on a machine fixing something over his head behind the inner door.

"No!" Skye and Simmons yelled, running past Mack and Fitz. Simmons ran to the access panel and Skye started bashing on the wall next to Barton.

"Coulson," Skye said. "Don't get in that machine. It almost killed you last time."

"What?" Barton asked, turning and looking at Skye. "What is that machine?"

"It brings back his memories," Simmons explained.

"And that almost kills him how?" Barton asked.

Coulson screamed and everyone turned to him, his body bowed where it was on the bed and he was muttering about Clint, New Mexico, idiots jumping off roofs, and something about Elvis songs and the Muppets.

Clint reached to his back and then frowned. "Where is my bow?"

"You dropped it in the corridor," Mack said.

Barton turned and looked at him, his eyes flicking to the rest of the group and he looked surprised. "I did?"

"I've got it," Romanoff said, walking from the back of the group. She handed Barton his bow but rested her hand on his wrist before he could reach for an arrow. "But, Phil decided to go in there and get his memories of you back. It's his choice."

"It might kill him," Barton said.

Romanoff smiled. "Someone stole his memories; we know what it means to have something stolen. He deserves to have it back."

Barton looked at the second window. "I don't want to lose him again."

"Barton," Coulson gasped, twisting towards him. "I will be fine."

"I can't get the door open," Simmons said. "Fitz."

"No," Barton said, reaching out for her hand. "Let him finish."

"I need to get in there in case it kills him. I can keep him alive." Simmons explained.

"What do you need?" Barton asked.

"The lock is to the Director specifically," she told him. "I need his passcode."

"Rogers," Barton suggested.

"What?" Captain America asked, then after a pause. "Oh, I see."

"No," Simmons said after trying it.

"Francis," Romanoff suggested. Barton turned to look at her.

"Yes," Simmons said, rushing inside. She grabbed the tablet off the bench and started hooking Coulson up to monitors.

"How is he?" Barton asked, grabbing at Coulson's hand.

"Perhaps we should leave," Captain America said behind them all.

"No way, Capsicle," Iron Man said. "I'm recording this for Pepper, I'm not going anywhere."

"We shouldn't be watching what is happening right now," Captain America said again.

Mack believed him but Fitz's hand was still on his wrist and he wasn't going to walk away for anything.

"He's in trouble," Simmons said. "But not worse than last time he was in this thing. I keep telling him to destroy it."

"His memories were taken," Skye said. "He wants to know what they took and he wants the ability to get them back."

"Eventually it could kill him," Simmons said. "This puts so much stress on his body and we don't know what it is doing to his mind."

"Fury was the one who was playing with his mind," Romanoff said.

"And he and I are going to be a having a very painful talk when I catch him," Barton told her, without looking away from Coulson. "How'd you know that would be his passcode?"

Romanoff made a dismissive gesture. "If they're all right and he's still Coulson – of course his passcode is going to be either something for Cap or you."

"Is it still there?" Coulson said, pulling everyone's attention to him. "Check if it's still there."

"If what's still there?" Barton asked.

"The ring, is it still there?"

"I need a black light," Barton said. "Someone get me a black light."

Fitz let go of Mack and turned to rush from the lab. Mack turned around, almost to follow him, when he realised that Fitz was just going for the black light. The Scotsman rushed back in a few moments later and handed the light to Barton. The archer turned it on, and flashed it over Coulson's right hand. There curling up his ring finger was an intricate tattoo that glowed red under the black light. Red? Mack didn't have time to think too deeply on that.

"It's still there, Phil," Barton told him.

"Lucky it wasn't the left hand." Coulson said.

"Why?" Barton looked across at Coulson's missing left hand and gasped. "What happened?"

Mack flushed, really unwilling to admit that he'd been the one to cut Coulson's hand off.

"Saved my life, lost my hand."

"You're finally like Luke Skywalker," Barton said, just as Coulson twitched in pain. "Come out of this machine, Phil, now."

"I don't know if I have it all yet," Coulson said. "And I need all of it."

Simmons shook her head. "You heartbeat is dangerously high, I think you might be about to have a heart attack."

"I'll tell you anything you don't have," Barton promised.

Skye slammed her hand down on the little switch next to the machine's power supply and everything stopped.

Coulson groaned painfully and Mack felt for him – that machine looked more like a torture device than anything else.

"We should definitely leave," Captain America said.

"No," Iron Man told him firmly. "We're about to get answers about what happened to Agent."

"Why do you call him Agent?" Simmons asked.

"That's his name." Iron Man said, like Simmons should have known that.

Mack turned around to look at Iron Man to find Tony Stark standing next to the red and gold suit.

"My first name isn't actually Agent," Coulson said on a groan, as he pulled himself up to a sitting position.

"Sure it is," Stark said. "Agent Coulson."

Coulson smiled at Stark weakly.

"So, you're not dead," Stark continued. "How'd you manage that? Did you have a delightful Afghani man who put an electromagnet in your chest too?"

"No." Phil said, frowning

"I don't have one in my chest anymore either." Tony Stark told him with a smirk.

Coulson laughed. "That's wonderful, Tony, anything else you'd like to share."

"Yes," Stark said, smiling happily. "My life is much more interesting than coming back from the dead – though I'm sure you've got a google alert, or some other antiquated thing, set up for me."

"Stark," Barton growled. "This isn't about you."

Stark shrugged. "I have yet to find a situation where that is true."

"Perhaps," Coulson said, "we should move into the kitchen – that machine always makes me hungry."

Clint wrapped his hand around Coulson's elbow and started walking him out of the room. Stark huffed and then turned to follow, the Iron Man suit walking behind him.

"What the hell is going on?" Skye asked, stalking out behind the Iron Man suit. "And why have we only just discovered that Coulson is friends with the Avengers?"

"He talks about the Avengers all the time," Hunter pointed out.

"Yeah, but who thought that was real?" Simmons said. "Like, actually _friends_ and not just – I know them."

"He was part of the team," Captain America told them, hands dropping to his belt. "He was just as much of an Avenger as I am."

Skye made a noise and rushed out of the room. "Come on, I need to hear what happens in this conversation. And I want to see if I can ask Stark for tech."

"You can," Captain America said. "Just pretend like what you have is fine and he'll make you something _better_."

Skye's laughter flowed down the hallway so everyone filled out of the room and followed her, and the Iron Man suit, towards the large kitchen.

-)(-)(-)(-


	3. Storage Closet

**Storage Closet**

"I can walk," Phil told Clint. He wasn't sure he believed the words coming out of his mouth – that was the worst he had ever felt coming out of the machine. It was worth it though, to remember everything he'd had with Clint. His Clint. He couldn't understand how Nick had been able to do that to him. Nick had been one of the few people they had actually confided in and he'd stolen Phil's memories of hsuband and the life they had shared. The memory of their first kiss. The memory of their first date accidently watching a Muppets movie. He felt the weight of his new memories pushing down on him and forced them to the back of his mind – he couldn't focus on them now. He needed some privacy – just he and Clint, so that he could work how exactly what all of this meant.

"But I don't want to let go," the archer said back quietly.

"Let's just go to my rooms," Phil offered, suddenly desperate to just be alone with Clint. "They can go to the kitchen on their own."

Clint wanted to say yes, Phil would tell, but his stomach growled loudly – so he knew what Clint was going to say before the words even came out of his mouth. "No, I'm making you a toasted cheese sandwich."

"You mean the only thing you can cook without burning it?" Phil asked.

Clint tightened his hand on Phil's elbow.

"You two are adorable," Tony said behind them. "Pepper is going to love this."

"Pepper?" Phil asked, turning around and looking at him. Clint kept him walking even if he didn't quite know where they were going.

Tony flicked a hand at the Iron Man suit. "Titanium Alloy Man is recording this for Pepper. And Bruce, if he ever comes home."

"Dr Banner left?"

Tony nodded. "After the thing with Ultron. You do know about that, even underground like this."

"Who do you think got the Helicarrier ready for Fury," Phil asked, unbecomingly impressed with himself when Tony looked surprised for a moment.

"It's you," Tony said.

"I knew he'd need-"

"No," Tony said. "You're the one who Clint bought a farmhouse with."

Phil froze, dragging Clint to a stop and making the other man look at him. "The farmhouse?"

Clint awkwardly shrugged. "You were dead; our secret retirement plan seemed less top secret."

Phil nodded. "That makes sense."

"I finished the kitchen."

Phil had never been one to show his emotions but suddenly he felt like he couldn't breathe for the pain that slammed into him at those words. He wanted to cry and he really wished that he was alone with Clint so that he could bury his head in Clint's skin and feel safe like he always had when it was just he and Clint.

"Kitchen's where?" Tony said.

"Three doors down on the right," Phil answered.

"You only have a couple of minutes, Agent, before everyone else is coming to hear the story."

Phil frowned at Tony.

"He got some empathy after the whole Chitauri, self-sacrifice thing," Clint whispered into his ear. "Which room around here is private?"

Phil nodded at the door next to them – it was a storage closet but it wouldn't be the first time they had had a huge conversation in a storage closet. Clint had proposed to him in a closet. Phil had given them a more public-friendly story, not that anyone knew either one of the stories, by re-proposing at the dinner he'd had planned for that weekend. He had had a ring…of sorts.

Clint pushed them both into the small room. Phil had planned to explain how he was feeling but something about the moment, or the scent of cleaning supplies, short-circuited his brain and he turned and pushed Clint heavily into the closed door behind him and pressed his body, and then his lips, into Clint. Clint melted into him, arms curling around Phil's body and holding on tightly. Phil licked at the other man's bottom lip, needing to be as close as possible to his husband. He gasped and yanked himself away.

"Phil?" Clint asked.

Phil closed his eyes and pressed his face into Clint's neck, breathing deeply and pulling in that scent of skin, ozone, and bow oil that was quintessentially Clint.

"Baby?" Clint asked again.

"I'm trying to make sense of losing three years, how could I have ever forgotten you?"

"You didn't forget me," Clint said fiercely, pulling Phil's face back so he could look him in the eye. "It was taken away from you. And if you want, you can go back to your room and I will bring you food and we'll work all of this out."

Phil smiled. "You finished the kitchen?"

"Black and white floor tiles and a green splashback, just like you wanted."

"No purple?"

Clint smiled and ducked his head. "We might have a new set of purple kitchen knives."

Phil lifted his hand and curled his palm around the rough, five o'clock shadow, of Clint's jaw. "I missed you for the last three years, and I didn't even know who I was missing," Phil's voice dropped down to an emotional whisper.

"I've been mourning over you for three years," Clint admitted, matching Phil's tone.

"I'm so sorry."

"Not your fault."

"Loki stabbed me."

"And he stole my free will."

Phil nodded. "What happened?"

"Nat knocked me out."

"How often does Tasha bring it up?" Phil asked.

"All the time."

Phil wanted to ask more questions, he wanted to know everything there was to know about the last three years but his body had other ideas, what little space there was between them disappeared and Clint opened his arms, and body, to him and they lost themselves in one another. Phil trailed his fingers through Clint's hair as Clint clutched at his lower back. He wanted to touch everything, and his hands moved everywhere. He trailed his hands down Clint's bare arms, felt the flex of Clint's fingers at his hips, and in the loops of his belt. He pressed into Clint's shoulder blades and gripped the wings of bone. Clint's mouth pulled away from his and pressed into the skin behind his ear, Phil's body had forgotten how it felt to have this type of attention paid to his body but Clint hadn't forgotten the ways to make him moan. And he did…loudly.

"Oh my God," Skye's voice floated in from the other side of the door.

Clint laughed into Phil's skin.

"Keep going," Mack said and Phil listened to the footsteps continuing down the hallway.

"Your room or the kitchen?" Clint asked.

"Nowhere at the moment," Phil admitted, pressing his hips into Clint. "I need a minute."

Clint smiled at him lasciviously. "I can take care of that."

"I don't think this is the right place for me to embarrass myself."

Clint grinned evilly and slithered down the wall.

"Clint," Phil said, not sure if he wanted him to stop or he wanted to beg Clint to touch him.

"Phil," Clint said, into his belt before smirking up at him and undoing the zip with his teeth.

"I warn you," Phil whispered. "It's been three years since anything but my own hand has done that."

Clint made a noise and swallowed down Phil's head.

"Fuck," Phil said, folding down over Clint's head until his forehead hit the door with a thud.

Clint didn't let up, sucking harder with each cut off moan from Phil until Phil bit down hard on his artificial thumb and came down Clint's throat.

"My God," Phil said, as Clint stood up.

Clint smirked at him and pressed a kiss to Phil's lips. "No one in three years?"

Phil shook his head.

"Is it okay that I am really happy about that?"

"Of course it is, Clint," Phil said, pressing a proper kiss into Clint's lips. Phil wanted to ask but he'd been dead to Clint and he honestly didn't want to know – jealousy had always been one of his weaknesses and not asking meant he didn't need to know.

Clint smirked. "I have basically just been working and avenging, and the only people I've spoken to in the last three years are the team and Clarice at the hardware store."

"Why?"

"Love of my life was dead," Clint said simply. "Not worth having something if it wasn't you."

Phil pressed forward to kiss Clint again. "Clint…"

"Nope," Clint said. "If we start with that you'll never get any food and this isn't the place for it."

"You've changed," Phil noted, thinking about the forthright way Clint had said that – still him but just a little more open and quick to share.

"I was _encouraged_ to talk to someone after losing you."

"And you did?" Phil asked, surprised.

"Nope."

Phil smiled. "Then what?"

"I sort of got a dog."

"How?"

"Been spending a lot of time at the farmhouse, and Billy at the next farm over agreed to look after him when I'm away for twenty dollars a week."

"She's a good kid."

"Also," Clint said. "Most of the team invade Bruce's office once a week for a little chat. He keeps saying he's not that type of doctor but he's helped us all."

"I always liked Dr Banner."

Clint smiled. "Think you can go out there now? Stark has been more patient than I thought he would."

"They are going to know what we've been doing," Phil said, pressing another kiss to Clint's lips.

"Stark's going to be proud and vocal, and I've got a feeling half your team won't know what to do with the idea of Phil Coulson – rampant sex god."

"Tasha's going to be smug."

"Always." Clint agreed with a smile.

"Come on," Phil said, smoothing his suit, making sure his fly was zipped, before they walked out of the closet and towards the kitchen.

-)(-)(-


	4. Explanations

**Explanations**

Clint followed Phil into the kitchen and saw everyone turn to look at him.

"Finally," Tony said. "Little Miss Civic-Avenger is disturbed by having heard you and Agent getting close in the closet."

"I," the girl in question sputtered. "…it's Coulson."

"Yes," Phil said, voice flat. "Once we hit a certain age most agent's genitalia simply drops off."

The curly-haired scientist let out a bark of laughter. "It doesn't work like that."

"Right," Phil said. "First things first, introductions." He introduced his new team, then the Avengers – somewhat pointlessly. "Now, any questions?"

"Zombie?" Tony asked.

Phil smiled. "I have no desire to eat brains."

Clint leaned close and told Phil he'd make him some food, Phil squeezed his wrist in thanks and settled down on a chair.

"Coulson," Nat said, quietly. "What happened?"

"T.A.H.I.T.I., it's a magical place," Phil said sardonically. "Fury had my body taken to the base of operations for the T.A.H.I.T.I. project. It was a Level 10 project using the enzymes found in the body of an alien race called the Kree. Giant, blue, bipedal, beings not that unlike Asgardians or us. The race is known to the Asgardians – the Lady Sif has been here and apparently they have been to Earth regularly but not for a very long time. They performed genetic modifications on some humans which has allowed certain bloodlines to access inhuman abilities once their genetic modifications have been triggered by a specific crystal from, we assume, the Kree home world."

"What does this have to do with your resurrection?" Steve asked.

"It explains why the Kree body was here on Earth," Phil said. "And, I have a feeling that the Inhumans may show up on the Avengers' radar at some point and I want you to understand that they are not evil by existence."

"I'm an Inhuman," Skye said forcefully, still defensive about it.

"What can you do?" Tony asked.

Skye made a face. "I can affect the natural vibrations of matter."

"Show me," Tony said.

"This isn't," Phil started, but he stopped when Skye reached out and made the water in the glass on the table dance.

"I have a lab," Tony said. "I would love to test your abilities."

"Tony," Phil interrupted.

"What?" Tony asked.

"Inappropriate," Phil said.

Skye eyed Tony. "I want tech."

Tony beamed at her. "We can talk."

"And it would be anonymous?" Skye asked.

Tony smiled. "I have the best security in the world."

"Anonymous," Skye said again.

"Okay, Little Miss Civic-Avenger, you can be anonymous."

"We'll talk," Skye told him.

May cleared her throat. "Perhaps not the right time."

"Yes," Phil said. "Before the Avengers project came to fruition I was put in charge of the T.A.H.I.T.I. project. We had subjects selected from S.H.I.E.L.D. who were brought back to life following their death. One of the side effects noticed was that they started carving alien symbols – one of whom was doing it on their own bodies. The solution was to re-write their memories and give them new lives. I then told Nick to close down the T.A.H.I.T.I. project and thought that was the end of it."

"And you?" Steve asked.

"Nick thought it was worth it, and wiped my memory of the project."

 _And me_ , Clint thought as he flipped the sandwich over, gripping the spatula tightly. His fingers itched for his bow or Phil.

"And more than that obviously," Phil continued.

"I can't believe Coulson is married," Skye said, voice obviously meant to be a personal whisper but missing the mark.

"Why?" Clint asked, his dander up.

"Because he's Coulson," Skye said, "he is the job, he just…I can't imagine him getting married and buying silverware and all of that."

Phil laughed. "Agent Coulson is only one facet of me, Skye."

"Well, obviously. Apparently, you've got game and no one knew."

"I knew," Clint threw in.

"So did I," Fitz said. "I just believed it was…it was heterosexual game."

"What?" Simmons asked.

"The cellist." Fitz explained.

"Yes, what about the cellist?" Tony asked.

"She was a friend – I believe Nick exaggerated our relationship to assist with the new memories – someone I felt a connection with, nothing like what I have with Clint, and therefore nothing that would prompt me to push the memories."

"But you told me about the cellist," Tony said.

Clint laughed. He flipped out the two sandwiches onto a plate and cut them while Phil tried to think of the best way to explain.

"What are you laughing at, Katniss?"

Clint flipped Tony off, and handed Phil the plate before he fit himself next to his husband.

"Pepper and I went to see her perform in New York," Phil explained. "Audrey welcomed us backstage and she is a wonderful woman and quite a flirt with some of her good friends. I let Pepper believe there was more to the relationship than there was because she had been talking about setting me up with either the _lovely_ woman in the accounts department or the _very handsome_ man from R &D. I believe she was hedging her bets. I didn't want her to follow up with the threat and I knew Audrey wouldn't mind. It was a harmless lie. That's why I told her things had fallen apart when I saw you at Stark Tower."

Tony made a face. "Just so you know, Pepper is going to be watching this video."

Phil smiled. "I am sure she is going to understand."

"I would expect an invitation to dinner," Tony told him. "And some very passive-aggressive comments."

"Is Pepper going to be seeing that part too?" Steve asked.

Tony made a face at them. "Agent, you were telling us a story."

"I was recovering for months," Phil continued. "But the memory of Tahiti was implanted in my brain and I thought I was there on holiday recovering. When I returned Nick explained that I couldn't tell the Avengers I was alive and instead he gave me a team. The official story, for people over Level 7, was that I was only dead for eight second but that the Avengers were told I died to bring them together."

"And below Level 7?" Nat asked.

"I never died – they probably didn't even know I exist and they wouldn't have known anything about the team."

"And you've spent the last three years going around with a new team?" Nat asked.

Phil smiled at her and Nat's shoulders shifted. Clint knew they'd come back to an understanding that Nat and Clint were Phil's first team, no matter if there were Avengers, or this new S.H.I.E.L.D., the three of them were something older and stronger than anything else. Nat would make Phil pay in some way later because him not telling them was a betrayal that neither of them would have accepted easily even without the tattooed ring on Clint's finger.

"Is there anything else we need to know now?" Steve asked.

"I am sorry I couldn't reveal my resurrection to you."

Steve smiled. "I understand that it was to protect your sanity."

"But, we don't understand why you agreed," Tony said.

Phil shrugged. "I've been wondering that myself."

Clint felt something cold slither through his mind at the possibilities of that.

"Nick explained that if you knew I came back from the dead it would open questions that couldn't be answered. Especially after so long but…" Phil trailed off.

Nat caught Clint's eye and he knew she suspected the same thing he did. Phil yawned, jaw popping, and Clint stood up.

"I think I should take my husband to bed. Take that how you want."

"Clint," Phil reprimanded weakly, standing up and curling his hand around Clint's wrist.

"I'm heading back to the Tower," Tony said.

"I think it would be good to talk to you tomorrow, Agent Coulson," Steve said.

"Of course," Phil agreed, "we will find you a room for the night." Nat cocked an eyebrow at him. "And you Tasha."

"Mack, you got some time to catch up?" Sam asked.

Mack nodded, his eyes almost flicking to Fitz. "Sounds good."

"I shall return to the Avengers facility as well," Vision said, from where he had been standing silent and still in the corner.

"Jarvis?" Phil asked.

"I'll explain," Clint told him quietly.

"I'll sort out rooms for anyone staying," Bobbi offered.

"Excellent," Phil said, opening his mouth to keep talking but Clint started shepherding him out of the room. "Clint?"

"Where are your rooms?"

Phil shook his head but lead him there anyway, leaving the teams behind to look after themselves.

-)(-)(-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be dealing with Mack/Fitz


	5. Honest Conversations

**Honest Conversations**

Mack startled when someone knocked on his door. He frowned and stood up, leaving the book on the bed behind him, to press the button to open the door. Fitz was standing on the other side frowning at it.

"Turbo?" Mack asked, not thinking but Fitz didn't flinch, didn't tell him off, just continued to stare at him. "Fitz?"

"That's the second time you've protected me by putting yourself in…in…dammit…not safe."

"Danger?"

"Yes, the second time you've protected me by putting yourself in danger."

Mack nodded.

"Why?"

"So you'd be safe."

Fitz frowned at him, eyes narrowing. "Why?"

"Because I want you to be safe."

"Why?"

"Because I care about you, turbo."

Fitz shook his head. "You lied to me."

"I didn't mean to lie to you, but I believed in the mission that Gonzales tasked me with – I believed that Coulson was compromised. I never thought you were willingly a member of HYDRA, man."

"But you…you…you…didn't tell me."

Mack had been waiting for an opportunity to explain what happened to Fitz since the moment it happened and now he couldn't remember any of the reasons he'd thought out in his head. "I didn't want to ask you to choose."

"Between you and Coulson?"

"Between what I was telling you and what you believed," Mack clarified, wanting more badly than ever before to find the right words. "You had been with Coulson since before the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., and you followed him after that, you came back after everything that happened to you because you believe in the mission that Coulson had. I didn't have all of the intel that Gonzales hadcollected, I was just one of the people gathering information. I needed to be sure that I wouldn't ruin the mission, and that I could explain everything to you."

"But he…you…came in and…and you…you," Fitz made a frustrated noise.

"Do you want to come in?" Mack asked.

"No. I want to know why you helped them…helped them…take over the base but saved me."

"I helped them take over the base because I believed that Coulson was comprised and that S.H.I.E.L.D., the S.H.I.E.L.D. that Gonzales was the head of, needed to absorb this S.H.I.E.L.D. for the safety of the people here and people everywhere. I didn't think Coulson was HYDRA but I didn't think he was the man to lead S.H.I.E.L.D."

"And now?"

"I cut his hand off and he saved both our lives when he dived for that crystal. He's got weak spots – lots of them, mostly for his team, but given what he did for Skye's dad, what he has managed to achieve being the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., I am willing to follow him."

"And are you going to…behead…no, that's wrong, betray us again?"

"I never wanted to betray you, Fitz."

"But you did."

Mack nodded, trying not to show how badly those words hurt.

"Will you do it again?" Fitz repeated.

"I am loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D., but if I think Coulson, or anyone here, is comprised I won't sit by while it happens – I'm going to speak up."

"Will you lie about it?"

"No," Mack said. "I will speak up like I did with Skye."

"You were…not right about her."

Mack nodded. "But I said what I was thinking, we had the conversation, and I don't regret that. I only regret making Skye feel that we didn't trust her. I didn't trust her powers, and what the mist might do to someone."

"But you trust her now?"

"Yes."

"Good."

Mack nodded, not sure if that was the end of the conversation.

"Do you see what was wrong with the argument – saying that a whole group of people are evil?"

"I don't think I was wrong to be wary," Mack said. "I think I might have been wrong in how I made my argument."

"I think you were," Fitz said plainly.

"Okay," Mack said, even if it hurt. "But you lied to us about her tests."

"I did, to protect her from people who were being ruled by their fears. I didn't like how Simmons was looking at her after that cave."

"But you did lie to all of us."

"So I'm not…opposite of worse than you?"

"Better," Mack said. "I think you did it with the best of intentions."

"And you've forgiven me?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I know why you did it, turbo, you wanted to protect your friend even if you were protecting her from the rest of your friends."

"Are you my friend?"

"Yes." Mack said firmly, taking a step forward and then freezing when Fitz tensed. He forced himself to take a step back. "You have always been my friend, Fitz."

"Why did you be…be…be…no…become my friend."

"What?"

"When you arrived here, why did you become my friend?"

"Because you are amazing," Mack said honestly, not having even thought it possible that Fitz might have ever questioned why Mack would want to spend his time with the Scottish scientist. "You were never, never, part of my hunt of information."

"But you talked to me about everything we were doing," Fitz said.

"Because I wanted to get to know you."

"Why?"

Mack froze, the real answer wouldn't help, but he didn't want to lie to Fitz either.

"You don't want to…to…tell me?"

"I don't want to lie to you," Mack said. "But I don't want to tell you something that is going to make this conversation harder."

"Why did you save me when Gonzales' man…came?"

"Because I didn't want you to get hurt," Mack said. "I never wanted anyone to get hurt, especially you, and when I realised that you were going to get caught in the explosion, I knew I had to get you out of the way."

"By putting you…your…whole," he waved a hand around his body and looked at Mack questioningly.

"Body?"

"Body between me and the explosion. You were hurt, you could have been killed."

Mack nodded. "I had to protect you, turbo."

"And today?" Fitz asked.

"I didn't know who Barton was. I had to get you out of the situation."

"But you…hid…no, you contaminated me."

"I locked you into the contamination room?"

"Without you," Fitz said, nodding.

"I have an obligation to this base, everyone here, and S.H.I.E.L.D., to protect the base from whoever comes in here and tries to take over." Mack watched Fitz's eyebrow rise. "I thought Gonzales was the true head of S.H.I.E.L.D., and I don't think I was wrong, even if Coulson wasn't compromised like I thought he was. I needed you to be safe before I could concentrate on stopping Barton…except that he is actually just Coulson's long lost husband."

"Why did you need me to be safe first?" Fitz asked, body getting even tenser where he was standing. "Do you think I'm…not useful?"

"No," Mack said. "I think you are very useful, too useful, and if someone is coming in here then I need you to be safe. You're more valuable to us, and them, than I am."

"That's not true."

"It is, people get me they can find out what we know. They get you they can get what we don't know yet."

"Why did you become my friend?"

"Because I saw you struggling with the changes you'd been through and I saw other people caught remembering who you were and not knowing how to deal with who you are, so I came and talked to you. Then…then, we talked and I realised you are brilliant, and even if your hands weren't quite working, or your words weren't quite doing what you wanted them to, you are still the most amazing person I have ever known and I wanted to get to know you better. I wanted to help you do the amazing things you can do, man. That is why I became your friend."

"So you felt…not thank you."

"Please?"

Fitz shook his head.

"Sorry?"

Fitz nodded. "You felt sorry for me at the beginning."

"No, I felt empathetic. I know what it's like to be dealing with trauma and have no one understand what you're going through."

"But you're still not…you're still keeping things from me."

"I promise it's nothing that has anything to do with S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Only me?"

"Yes," Mack nodded, hoping that Fitz wouldn't push this.

"Will you…dammit…"

"Just take a deep breath and-"

"I know!" Fitz said. "Relax and take my time. That doesn't help. I just want to find out what's going on with you, Mack."

"If I tell you it will change things that don't need to change."

"I want to trust you," Fitz said. "I want to but I don't want you to…to…to…not truth me again."

"How about I tell Bobbi and she'll tell you if it's something you need to know."

"I trust Bobbi less than I trust you."

"Hunter?"

"No."

"May?"

"Mack!" Fitz said forcefully.

"I have feelings for you," Mack said, finally. "Not just friendship ones."

"Oh," Fitz said.

"I didn't want to…" Mack told him. "I didn't want to make it seem like I was saying it because you were mad at me. This is not a way to make you forgive me."

"You have feelings for me?" Fitz asked.

"Have for a long time, turbo."

"Oh," Fitz said again. "You didn't want to…to…like admit."

"Tell you?" Mack asked.

Fitz nodded. "That one."

"I didn't want to tell you when you still didn't trust me."

"But you were going to?"

"Tell you?" Mack asked, and Fitz nodded. "I don't know. I've never thought you might be interested back so I probably wouldn't have told you and made it awkward."

"Okay," Fitz said, nodding.

"Okay?"Mack said, half questioningly.

"Are you going to…to…ummm…dammit…opposite of put me in danger."

"Save?"

"Yes, that, are you going to do that again?"

"Yes."

"Are you going to put yourself in danger to do it?"

"If I need to."

Fitz frowned. "I don't want you to do that."

"Can't change who I am, turbo, and who I am certainly wants to keep you safe."

"I need to think."

Mack nodded. "I'll be around if you have any more questions."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome," Mack said, wanting to slap himself. He watched Fitz walk away, muttering to himself, until the other man turned the corner. Then Mack turned around and tried to go back to reading. He didn't have much luck.

-)(-)(-


	6. This Is What We Do

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm having trouble with Nat's voice, she's difficult to get right.

**This Is What We Do**

Clint pulled back the string and let it fly, pulling out arrow after arrow until his arm ached and his quiver was empty.

"I thought you'd be in Coulson's bed," Nat said into the sudden quiet.

Clint wouldn't admit that Nat surprised him but he knew she knew. "He passed out."

"And I'm surprised you aren't up there with him."

"I can't sleep," Clint admitted.

"You couldn't just sit there and watch him sleep?" Nat asked, picking up one of the throwing knifes on the bench and testing the weight. "It wouldn't be the first time that's how you've spent a night."

Clint walked towards the target and started pulling out the arrows and checking them before sliding them back into the quiver.

"I couldn't settle. " He didn't like admitting that he, who was trained to be still and at least outwardly calm in the worst situations, couldn't calm down enough to stay in a room with the husband he hadn't seen in three years. "I was unsettling Phil, and after what he went through earlier he needed the sleep."

"Talk to me," Nat said.

"That's Phil's line."

"And I'm surprised he didn't say it to you."

"He did," Clint said. "But he could barely sit up so I talked crap until he passed out."

"He wouldn't have wanted you to do that."

"He will feel better for it."

"You need to talk to him."

"I need to do a lot of things."

"Such as?"

"Get back the last three years of my life."

"You know better than to try and reclaim something that has been lost."

Clint wanted to hurt something, he felt so impotently full of rage, and he knew that the only person who could make him feel any better was Phil but he also couldn't ask anymore of him after the other man had basically tortured himself to get back memories of their marriage.

"If you can't talk to him, you can talk to me."

Clint smiled at her. "Thanks, Nat."

"Don't get polite with me, Barton, say what you need to say so that you can go back to Coulson's room."

"He stole three years of my life, and my husband, and stole Phil's memories, Nat."

"He did."

"He can't have any good reason to have betrayed us like that. We trusted him with that secret. We trusted five people with that secret and he stole Phil's memories of it."

"He did."

"He betrayed us both."

"So, what are you going to do about it?"

"The exact same thing you would do," Clint said. "I'm going to hunt him down and make him pay."

"You know he's going to have a good reason."

"There is no good reason!" Clint spat, turning to glare at Nat.

She stared back at him impassively. "The project had sent people mad. The only way to stop it happening to Coulson was to reshape his memories."

"That doesn't mean he had to remove me from the memories."

Nat's lips quirked. "He doesn't remove the memory of your marriage, what's the first thing Coulson does?"

"Come find me."

"He doesn't remove the memories and Coulson starts to go mad, what do you do?"

"If I can't fix him, I would have been with him to the end."

"So he loses two good agents."

"Stop defending him," Clint said, knowing she would ignore him.

"This is what we do," Nat told him. "He loses Coulson – who you know he respected and _liked_ which isn't like him. So, he moves heaven, Earth, and the Kree to bring him back to life using a project Coulson had mothballed. The only way to keep him halfway sane was to reshape his memories, but he'd already told us that Coulson was dead."

"He could have told me he lied, he could have said he did it to bring the team together and eventually I would have stopped shooting out his car tyres."

"Except he's worried that Coulson isn't Coulson anymore so he can't put him back in the team."

"I'm not the team, I'm Phil's husband."

"And you can't keep a secret from me."

Clint smirked. "I can."

"But you wouldn't have."

"No, I wouldn't have."

"So, you and me, we have to keep this huge secret from the team."

"I'm okay with that."

"Except Coulson starts poking at the memories because no way would you let him for to Tahiti alone to recover from dying at the hands of Loki and no way would he have left you after you've been mind-controlled by an Asgardian."

"He could have planted me in the memories."

"Then you would have had to lie to your husband."

"I know you are loyal to him, Nat."

"I'm loyal to him because he's never given me reason not to be. I trust him to do what he thinks is the right thing and not to burn me unless it's necessary. That doesn't mean I agree with what he's done here or that I don't believe his version of 'right' might be the wrong thing for everyone else. But, end of the day, he's trying to keep the world safe."

"In no world is it ever going to be 'right' that Coulson and I have lost three years."

"Then ask me."

"I can't ask you to."

"Yes, you can, just like I'd be able to ask you."

"Nat," Clint said, laying the bow and quiver down. "Go and find him, get answers, and if they wouldn't satisfy me, bring him back here so I can have that conversation with him."

"You know he won't come."

"But at least I know that something is happening when I'm here trying to get over what he did to us with Phil."

"And I'll tell you where to have that conversation," Nat promised. "I want to talk to Coulson before I leave. Steve and I will be heading off tomorrow. He needs to get back to his hunt for Bucky Barnes."

"Phil will want to talk to you too."

"Now, go back to bed and spend time with your husband."

Clint let out a long breath and nodded. "Thanks, Nat."

She smiled at him. "I want answers as well. He lied to us both – he just betrayed you more."

Clint nodded and suddenly knew he needed to get back to Phil. He nodded at her and left, walking through the corridors and back to Phil who was still out like a light. Clint took off the hoodie he'd been wearing and slipped into bed. Phil turned over and wrapped his arm around Clint's waist. Clint expected him to speak but he didn't – just pressed a kiss to Clint's shoulder and went back to snoring quietly. Clint still hated what had happened to them but he could enjoy this for the first time in three years. If he could just keep his eyes open long enough to experience it.

-)(-)(-


	7. Talk To Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry there wasn't an update last night - I was working late and was just exhausted.

**Talk To Me**

Phil woke up the next morning with an ache in his neck and head that he remembered from the last time he'd been in that machine. Though, last time he didn't wake up with Clint pressed into his back. He took the time to enjoy it. He should get up and move, a warm shower and paracetamol for his aches would make him feel a lot better but he hadn't woken up with his husband in more than three years so pain wasn't going to stop him.

He had fallen asleep the night before while he'd been trying to get Clint to talk to him. He'd known that Clint was distracting him but he'd learned a long time ago that Clint needed to want to talk and he always wanted to talk in the end but he was the type who thought a problem over first. Phil was a talk first person. But they had learned, after a lot of work, to accept one another's needs.

Phil wasn't sure how to connect the huge portion of his life that he'd lost and the last three years where he lived like he wasn't married. He couldn't understand why Nick would have done this but he could almost follow the other man's logic. Nick had known how they felt about one another and he would have known that nothing would have kept them apart and Nick had done everything he could to separate Phil from his old life – except for May, who had been the control member of the group. The only person who knew his past and could watch the resurrected Phil with the right frame of reference.

"You're overthinking," Clint mumbled into the skin between Phil's shoulder blades.

"I have lived three years not knowing I was married."

"And now that you know?" Clint asked quietly.

Phil tried to turn around but Clint resisted him. "Clinton Francis Barton, not knowing we were married does not change for a second the fact that I love you and we are married. So, stop giving in to whatever is going through your head."

Clint pressed a kiss to the skin above Phil's t-shirt. Then he shoved at Phil's body until they were facing one another. "Can S.H.I.E.L.D. use an archer? Or a Specialist?"

Phil grinned at him. "I can. But, I can't just ask my husband to live on base with me; it would be unprofessional."

Clint laughed. "What about Mack and the Scot? Or Hunter and Barbara."

"Barbara?"

Clint flushed. "She and I knew one another a long time ago."

"You dated."

Clint nodded. "Maybe."

"Circus or after?"

"At the start of my S.H.I.E.L.D. training."

Phil nodded, thinking for a moment on Lance and Bobbi. "And there is nothing going on between Fitz and Mack."

"Really?" Clint asked. "Certainly looked like it."

"Not as far as I know."

"You're slipping, Phil."

"Must be the old age," Phil said, remembering with warmth the old joke.

Clint nodded, tracing his hand down Phil's side.

"Did going to the shooting range help last night?" Phil asked.

Clint nodded, not surprised that Phil would still have known even when he was asleep. "Nat found me down there."

"And?"

"She's going to go and have a conversation with Fury for us."

"That's going to be an interesting conversation."

"It's going to be a barely verbal conversation."

"We've avoiding things," Phil said finally.

"Tell me what happened," Clint said.

"I shot Loki after he stabbed me," Phil said, rubbing at his chest. "Then I died."

"Can I see?" Clint asked.

Phil let out a long breath and grabbed the bottom of his shirt to pull it over his head. Clint reached out and traced the scar on his chest, he could feel Clint's fingers but the feeling was muted – not quite right. Phil grabbed Clint's hand to stop the touch.

"Baby?" Clint asked.

"I don't have normal feelings there, it feels strange."

"Give me your hand," Clint said, hiking up the side of Phil's borrowed shirt. He pressed Phil's hand to the synthetic skin on his side. "I got shot in Sokovia when we went in the first time. Dr Cho used her synthetic skin to repair my wound. But it doesn't feel quite right, no matter that Dr Cho promised me that my girlfriend wouldn't be able to tell the difference."

Phil smoothed his fingers over the skin for a few seconds and then traced his finger around like his was marking out the wound.

"What happened after you died?" Clint asked, pressing his hand over Phil's ribs where the skin was unscarred.

"What I remembered was a holiday in Tahiti," Phil said. "Until I was kidnapped by a woman named Raina who put me in that machine for the first time. She wanted to know how I had come back to life. It made me remember the real T.A.H.I.T.I."

"It was bad," Clint said quietly – it wasn't a question.

"It made me remember them changing my memories," Phil said. "I begged them to let me die."

Clint's face shifted, slipping into a mask Phil knew well from missions.

"I am glad they didn't let me," Phil went on. "But, it was a worse torture than I have ever endured."

Clint fingers found the other scars on Phil's body; the lash marks on his back, the puckered scars from knives and guns, and that one spot where he'd been shocked with a cattle prod. "And you remember that now."

"Yes." Phil pressed his foot into Clint's calf. "I've been speaking to Andrew."

"Bet May loves that."

"You are going to have to talk to her eventually."

Clint shook his head. "No, I don't."

"If you're going to become one of our Specialists, or perhaps the liaison to the Avengers, you are going to have to deal with May on a regular basis."

Clint twisted his head around and kissed Phil, wrapping his leg around the other man's hip.

"I'm not going to let you distract me," Phil told him.

Clint obviously didn't believe him, and Phil had to admit he didn't honestly believe himself – he was very happy to be distracted.

"Talk to me," Phil said, breath caught, as he stared at the smattering of freckles on Clint's shoulder.

"I'm staying," Clint said a few minutes later, after he'd thrown half of the blankets off their legs. "We can talk about the last three years slowly. We don't need to talk about it all today."

"I'm not going to stop asking."

"And I'm going to tell you about every damned day I can remember but if we start talking now, we'll never stop. We probably have other things to do with our day. Steve and Nat stayed here to talk to you. And I hear you're the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. now."

Phil wanted to know everything, every part of Clint's life that he'd missed. Before his death they had been in all parts of one another's lives. They had met when Phil had been assigned as Clint's handler during a mission. It was one of those missions he used to get where there were difficulties between handlers and assets. Clint wasn't difficult, he was frustrated with the handlers who didn't take the time and energy to really understand Clint or his past. Clint had been in the circus and that background fed into Clint's view of the world. It was not something his other handlers had really understood – and Phil hadn't either but he did know what he had heard about the insulated life of people in the circus, and he knew what it was like to be one person in a team that moved constantly and couldn't form relationships outside of the team. They had worked together quite well and since Phil was moving out of being a Specialist and into being a full-time Handler, he was basically made Clint's handler. Until Clint came back with a Russian spy instead of another kill against his name, and it was decided that Phil and Clint needed to be switched around some. Phil hadn't been able to argue that he was too personally invested in Clint even if they hadn't been anything more than friends and co-workers. When Tasha had started working missions for them she had the same issue with some of the handlers that Clint had. Neither Clint nor Tasha were 'normal' assets, and after Phil had extensively researched their backgrounds and common traits, with the help of Andrew – the first time they met and how Andrew and Melinda met. Phil had presented the findings to Fury and Payne and it was agreed that assets that came from outside of the Academy would be handled by senior handlers. Phil and Jasper had been the first, and Phil felt that same old pain now, thinking about Jasper and knowing that the other man had been HYDRA all along. He was forever grateful that Jasper hadn't been able to turn either Clint or Tasha – he wasn't surprised but forever grateful that two of the people he considered family hadn't betrayed him when the world imploded.

Tasha had been right the night before – she had been the one to push them to admit, and act on, their feelings for one another. And the person who was responsible for them going to a Muppets movie for their first date. They had enjoyed themselves immensely. She hadn't locked them in a room – she had cornered them in a dodgy hotel in Paris and explained, succinctly, that she would not deal with their reluctance to act on their feelings just because they worked together, or that they were unsure of the others interest in men. Phil had always liked Tasha's bluntness and while he didn't enjoy it at the time, she did save them all some difficulties and a lot of wasted time. They had kept their relationship a secret, because they were both spies at the end of the day. It hadn't been easy, smooth, or without the occasional cooling off period, but they had been determined not to lose something they both so desperately wanted. Tasha had always been their biggest supporter and had, more than once, provided them with an uncompromising and blunt viewpoint on their stupidity. She delighted in pointing out their stupidity. The painful thing was that she was almost always right, though thankfully she never took sides. She was too Russian for that.

Phil had had an engagement dinner, and speech, all planned out. When Clint dragged him into the closet following a mission where Tasha was shot and told him that they should get married, immediately. He'd amended that to as soon as Tasha was able to be their witness. They couldn't wear wedding rings – it was safer for them both that their relationship was a secret from as many people as possible. The tattoo was the result of a Stark experiment that Phil had access to. The design was Clint's but Phil's mother had been from Denmark and his parents had worn their rings on their right hands. So, his tattoo was there and Clint wore his on his left. Given what Mack had done to his left hand he was thankful he'd made that decision all those years ago. Clint had taken Phil to the farmhouse as an almost honeymoon. He explained that when he was little he'd wanted to live on a farm, he'd commented that they couldn't keep doing the spy thing forever, and maybe they'd get killed in the job, and maybe they wouldn't ever want to retire but that he wanted something else, something completely outside of their lives. So, they'd bought a farm – leased out the land to their neighbour, and Clint had started his renovation plan. They spent any down time they could there. Tasha selecting her room when they made it back to New York without them actually telling her of their plans or that they now owned a farmhouse.

Their relationship, their marriage, was a secret that they told only a few people – Nick, Melinda, Tasha, and Phil's cousin Jessica in Australia. Their farmhouse was a secret that Tasha somehow divined from their faces when they returned but she was the only person who had known. Except, now, for the Avengers.

They had last seen one another when Clint left for the mission guarding the Tesseract. Phil had ended up following him there but they hadn't really seen one another – Phil arriving just before the energy surge – he was supposed to be taking the operation over, something he'd been looking forward to even if he couldn't actually be with Clint. The last time, when it was just the two of them – Phil coming off a mission in Peru and Clint on downtime. They'd been at the farmhouse, pulling out kitchen cupboards and having lazy sex in whatever room they made it to that day. It had been an excellent time and neither of them wanted to go back to the real world. The more time they spent at the farmhouse the more that Phil had been able to see the future that Clint had suggested. The two of them, old, bodies a little more broken than other people, rattling around on their farm growing tomatoes and fruit trees – Phil wanted all of the fruit trees he could fit in.

Then Phil died. He turned and pressed his face into Clint's neck in the way that he'd planned to the night before when he'd felt overwhelmed. Clint's fingers immediately buried in his hair like they used to.

"This isn't going to be easy," Phil mumbled, knowing that Clint probably wouldn't hear him but not sure if he really wanted the other man to. "We've both changed in the three years."

"At this point, having you back, I could even accept you having been HYDRA all this time."

Phil pulled back, surprised. He curled his fingers behind Clint's ear but couldn't feel anything.

Clint turned his head, and deep in the ear canal was a tiny metal device that looked to be wired in. "Stark came up with this when he realised I was mostly deaf. He was quite surprised about the fact he hadn't known immediately."

Phil smiled. "So, now you can hear more."

Clint nodded. "He and Banner worked on it, I think Stark is even planning on releasing it publically, but it was designed specifically for my hearing difficulties so they've been trying to broaden its abilities."

Phil ran his finger around the shell of Clint's ear. "It's good?"

"It's good. Hard to get used to actually hearing everything again. But, it's also been nice. Did you know we have birds nesting in the barn?"

"I didn't."

"I'll show them to you."

"I look forward to it." And Phil really, truly, gut-wrenchingly meant it – if he could have he would have stolen them both a quinjet and taken them to the farm.

Phil desperately needed to relieve his bladder but this cocoon of he and Clint was proving too hard to move away from. He knew when he got up it would ruin this moment and they would have to return to the real world.

"I know that look," Clint said. "Get up, pee, we'll get some breakfast, and tonight we'll come back here and get this back."

"Rebuilding S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't give me much downtime," Phil warned.

Clint shrugged. "We will make this work. I know what life is like without you and I'm not going back to that."

"Neither am I."

"Then we are in agreement and I'm going to go and pee first."

Phil groaned as Clint climbed over the top of him and ducked into the bathroom first. He got up to bustle them both into a shower…and another happy moment.

-)(-)(-


	8. Unsatisfactory Answers

**Unsatisfactory Answers**

Nat sat down with Steve.

"Coulson is alive," Steve said quietly.

"Nick Fury brought him back from the dead," Nat agreed, more than happy to let Steve lead the conversation.

"What are you going to do?"

Nat smirked. "Talk to Coulson when he and Clint finish having reunion sex."

Steve didn't blush but she could see the slight twitch – she hoped he got Bucky back because he was certainly never going to get over the other man like this.

"Then we're going back to base," Natasha finished.

"And then?"

"I'm going to go and have a conversation with Fury for Clint."

"For Clint?"

"He needs to be here – he needs time, so I'm going to have the conversation he can't."

"You need someone to watch your back."

Nat smirked.

"Maybe you just might want someone to watch it."

"You've got your own mission, Cap."

Steve laughed but there was still something pinched around his eyes.

"Have you been waiting for me?" Coulson said, walking into the room.

Nat took a moment to catalogue him, slight hitch to the left, freshly showered – hair still wet behind his ear, lack of a tie meaning Clint had stolen when he was getting dressed, and the twinkle in his eye that told Nat things were good in his world. Her life had always been fun when things were good in Phil's world.

"Clint said you wanted to talk to me."

Nat smiled at him. Phil responded with an eyebrow quirk of his own. Nat did enjoy Phil Coulson – so much more subtle than most people and basically the exact opposite of Stark.

"It's good to see you alive, Agent Coulson," Steve said.

"Always a pleasure to see you, Captain Rogers," Phil told him, smiling a little more than normal. She knew he'd never cheat on Clint but she could also see why the archer was a little jealous of Steve.

"I think we should discuss the possibilities of partnership between the Avengers and your new S.H.I.E.L.D.," Steve said. "Now that we are aware you're alive. Though I don't understand how you and Director Fury fit together as two heads of S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"I'm the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.," Phil said. "Nick…is Nick."

"So, he answers to you?" Steve asked.

"He's Nick," Phil said, "he doesn't really answer to anyone. But he tasked me with rebuilding S.H.I.E.L.D., so I'm the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D."

"That doesn't answer my question," Steve said, voice getting the tinge of righteous patriotism that worked well on almost everyone.

Phil smiled at him. "I know, Captain."

"I do not believe there is no adequate answer to that question," Nat told Steve.

"A clear line of command is necessary for any operation like this one."

"And I am the start of that command as far as S.H.I.E.L.D. is concerned," Phil said. "Nick just happens to be using a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier and be the person the world sees…in an unofficial capacity."

"I don't like this," Steve told them, hands falling to his belt. Nat had to bite down on the desire to laugh.

"There are always things we don't like about these situations," Phil said, and Nat knew she'd been rubbing off on him.

"I'm going to need to talk to Fury about this," Steve said.

"If you get a straight answer let me know," Phil told him with a happy smile.

"Will do, Director Coulson." Steve said with a respectful nod.

"And now," Natasha said, curling an arm through Phil's elbow. "You and I are going to go and have a private chat."

"This is going to be one of those chats I don't enjoy, isn't it?"

Nat laughed. "It's going to be like that time in Ballarat."

"Oh my," Phil said, with a quiet, but dramatic sigh. Nat did love the man sometimes – he was quite spectacular – and he was one of the few people she truly cared for. Which was why they were going to be having this particular conversation.

-)(-)(-


	9. Avengers Liaison

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter deals with Steve/Bucky as a past relationship though I will never be convinced there has ever, will ever, be a time when they aren't in love.

**Avengers Liaison**

Clint slid into the room where Steve was sitting, staring silently at May, who was staring back at him.

"Well," Clint said. "This is certainly something I never thought I'd see."

May looked at him and inclined her head before she stood up and left the room. Clint didn't return her nod – he had no interest in May or her collegiate nods until she'd earned back his respect. He would never have lied to Andrew about her being alive or dead, and he couldn't understand why she had done that to him. He did know she'd have an air-tight, solid, logical reason but until he heard it he could continue to be annoyed at her.

"I'm staying here," Clint said, by way of an opening.

"I assumed you would. What if we need you?"

"Call me and I'll suit up," Clint said. "But, I'm not leaving him now that I got him back."

"I wouldn't ask you to," Steve said, folding his arms across his chest and looking very righteous.

"And when you get your Bucky back, I'll return the favour."

Steve froze. "How did you know?"

Clint shrugged. "I didn't, Phil always told me that you and Bucky were in love – he'd show me the old footage of you from missions and point out all of the clues."

"The mission footage was made public?"

"Phil has a collection – he has always been quite interested in Captain America."

"I know. But, me and Buck, we weren't like you and Coulson."

"You didn't love him?"

"Oh, I love him," Steve said quietly. "Always did. And sometimes we did things that were illegal back then but he went with girls too. He was never mine, not really, but then there was Peggy and I understood why he liked girls even if there's never been another girl like Peggy."

"Or a man like Bucky?"

Steve shrugged. "Doesn't exist no matter what Natasha says."

"And you walked into a HYDRA base for him, and chanced your life to get through to him on the helicarrier."

Steve smiled. "I'm with him to the end of the line, and he's with me, whether he remembers or not."

"That sounds like a vow."

"He made it to me when I was ten and thought the pleurisy was going to kill me," Steve said. "And we have been making the promise since."

"He'd be a fool not to know he's the love of your life."

"Bruce has been very good for all of us," Steve mused, very deliberately changing the topic.

"Phil said the same thing," Clint told him, happy to leave the topic of Bucky and Steve alone for now. "We're going to have to repay him sometime."

Steve smiled. "He wouldn't appreciate us meddling."

"No one appreciates meddling."

Steve inclined his head in agreement.

"So, I'm thinking we call me the Avengers Liaison to S.H.I.E.L.D. ."

Steve frowned. "I feel like that is supposed to be funny."

"It was," Fitz said, walking through the door and smiling at them both. "It was about the…the internet calling a second stage of programming v2.0."

"Thank you," Steve said.

"You're welcome," he turned his back on them and started moving around the room like they weren't there.

"Avengers Liaison is good," Steve said.

"I'll be heading back with you and Nat to get my things," Clint told him.

"Wheels up in an hour."

"See you then," Clint said, turning around and leaving Steve with Fitz.

-)(-)(-


	10. Chatting With Exes

**Chatting With Exes**

Bobbi nodded at Clint as he walked up to her, he smiled back at her brightly.

"Hello, Barbara."

"Clinton."

"Nice to see you again."

"Always nice to see you, Clint."

"I know."

"Though I am pleased that this time involves less blood and pain."

"That wasn't my fault," Clint said. "Sitwell sent us into that warehouse with bad intel."

"Does make you wonder if it was deliberate now," she said.

"Nope, Coulson backed him on that op and then…well…I made him nurse me back to health."

She rolled her eyes at him and saw Lance watching them from the edge of the quinjet bay. "So, you're married."

"I hear you got married too."

"And divorced."

"I was widowed for a while," Clint said. "But it just didn't stick."

"I'm sorry," she said softly. Not that anything she and Clint had had was soft.

"I got him back," Clint said. "Three years was a small price to pay for getting him back for the rest of the time we can have."

"But you're leaving?"

"Only to get some stuff," Clint said. "I doubt anyone would want me walking around naked when I'm not in uniform."

Bobbi smiled, she had always enjoyed Clint's company – he had always had his own way of looking at the world, and a lovely sense of humour. "I can think of a few people who wouldn't mind a look."

"And one man in particular who doesn't share," Clint said, smiling happily.

"Something you have in common."

"Yep."

"So, you're going to be sticking around?"

"For as long as I can," Clint told her, smiling softly when Director Coulson walked into the hangar bay.

"We should spar some time."

"I can feel the daggers in my back already."

Bobbi smiled at him. "I've learned a few tricks since last we sparred."

"Then I look forward to it."

Captain America and Natasha Romanoff walked into the bay and Clint moved over towards them. Bobbi moved over to stand next to Lance and Simmons.

"So, that's Clinton?" Lance asked.

"Yes." Bobbi told him, knowing that this would lead to a 'conversation' but not really ready to have it yet.

"He's leaving?" Simmons asked. "I thought he and Coulson were married."

"He's going to his stuff," Bobbi explained. "Then he'll be coming back. He's not going to be leaving Coulson anytime soon."

"Grand," Lance said, watching Clint.

Bobbi turned to look at the scene.

Coulson handed Captain America a large, thick envelope. "Everything we have on the Winter Soldier."

"I thought we had it all," Captain America said.

"We have old SSR files," Coulson explained. "And this," he handed over another, smaller envelope. "That is for your free time; something else to focus on."

Captain Rogers frowned and opened the envelope. He pulled out the papers and flicked through them. "How did you know?"

Coulson looked embarrassed. "I was going to suggest it to you when we met. But, I missed the calm after the fight."

"Thank you."

"Anytime, Captain Rogers."

"Please call me Steve."

"This is my contact number, Steve, if you need anything call me."

"Thank you, Phil."

"And if you do it, I'd love to see a copy."

Captain America smiled brightly and shook Coulson's hand. "I'll get us ready to fly."

"Goodbye, Steve."

"Phil." Captain America nodded and then stepped onto the quinjet they had arrived in.

Coulson turned to Romanoff and his lips quirked. "Best of luck with that talk."

"Best of luck with Hawkeye."

Coulson flat our smiled at her this time. "Don't be a stranger."

Romanoff shrugged. "I know where your secret base is."

Coulson nodded at her and she quirked an eyebrow at him. They appeared to have a short non-verbal conversation and then Nat stepped closer and winked at him before she turned and walked onto the plane.

"I see your conversation went well," Clint said.

"Very." Coulson said, drily.

"Good, I'll be back tonight. Then I'll keep that promise from earlier." Clint's tone was dripping with innuendo.

Coulson turned to look at Clint and the archer launched himself over and kissed Coulson. Bobbi looked away. She could see Simmons staring, though the expression on her face said she wasn't sure how she felt about watching. Lance just looked smug.

"That is not something I ever…ex…ex…thought I'd see the Di…Coulson doing," Fitz said from behind them.

"You should all be careful when opening cupboards and closets," May told them.

"Why?" Skye asked.

May frowned. "Personal experience."

Skye groaned. "I don't think I'm old enough to know about this."

Fitz laughed. "It's…good."

"It is," Simmons agreed. "Coulson deserves to be happy."

"He certainly looks happy," Lance said.

Bobbi looked back to see Clint pull away, salute at their little group, and turn to jog jauntily towards the quinjet. Coulson moved over to stand with them. None of them commented on the kiss but, when they turned to leave after the quinjet had flown away, Skye fell into step next to Coulson and nudged him with her elbow.

"Yes, Skye?"

"Is he coming back?"

"Yes, and we'll be having a talk about private and public affection."

"Good luck with that," Bobbi said. "I know how well Clint falls into line."

Coulson smirked. "I have my ways of convincing him." Then he turned and walked away from them.

Bobbi couldn't help but laugh; she had a feeling things were going to be getting interesting around The Playground with Hawkeye around.

-)(-)(-


	11. Dubious Source of Advice

**Dubious Source of Advice**

Fitz had been thinking on Mack since the night when the other man had admitted to feelings. Feelings for him. Before the second S.H.I.E.L.D. invaded Fitz would have jumped at the chance but now. Now, Fitz kept thinking about the fact that Mack had been spying on them while planning to betray them all. Except…except, Mack kept saving him. Not in the way that Ward had 'saved' them but putting himself between danger and Fitz. He couldn't help but wonder what Mack would have done if he'd been Ward on that plane…but, he couldn't lie to himself enough to convince himself that Mack would ever side with HYDRA. It would never have gotten there with Mack but this was the third time that someone Fitz had feelings for had let him down.

First, Ward – a silly crush but Fitz understood the theory of a type. Then Jemma, though a part of him understood that she'd left for more reasons than the fact he was changed. And now, Mack. Jemma had been hard, they were FitzSimmons, she was the only person he had been able to count on for so long. And he knew she blamed herself, he understood that, and how could she see him with _brain damage_ and not be hurt. He'd tried to think about the reverse – what would he have done if she had been the one who was fundamentally changed. Now, he knew what he'd do, but then he couldn't know and maybe he would have run away for a convenient mission. But she'd come back. And it had taken time, and it wasn't the same, and he didn't delude himself anymore that the deep connection they shared was anything romantic. The delusion that she was safe had been ripped away from him.

Mack hadn't been safe. He had had the power to hurt Fitz from that first meeting – when he'd decided that Fitz wasn't just weird, he was worth his time. He'd come when Fitz was already wounded and he could have rendered the wound fatal but he hadn't. Until he'd betrayed them all. Except…except, Fitz wasn't sure he had betrayed them. Not really, not like Grant, or the way that Nick Fury had betrayed Clint Barton and Coulson. He had been spying on them though, and he had been dishonest, but Fitz hadn't betrayed them to an evil organisation, or stolen who they are. And Fitz _wanted_ to forgive him, he wanted to accept the information that Mack had shared and he wanted to believe what Mack wouldn't lie to him like that again. But, what he wanted wasn't always what was best for him.

He tried to shake the thoughts out of his head. He tried to stop thinking about Mack, but not even the obelisk was intriguing enough to keep his attention with all of the Mack options in front of him. He needed to talk but he didn't know who to talk to. It couldn't be Mack, and it couldn't be Simmons. Coulson hadn't been around much…unsurprisingly, and Fitz probably couldn't have gone to him anyway – or May for that matter. That left Bobbi – who Fitz trusted less than Mack, and…Hunter. It would have to be Hunter; he'd known Mack for a long time.

Fitz left the tablet on the table and went in search of Hunter. He found the other man in the gym, on the rowing machine, with earbuds in so he didn't notice Fitz for a few minutes. Hunter frowned at the scientist when he finally spotted him.

"Fitz?" he asked, pulling out his earphones.

"Hey," Fitz said awkwardly.

"You need me for something, mate?"

Fitz shook his head. "I need…a favour."

"Okay, what can I do for you?"

"I…" Fitz shrugged awkwardly. "The thing is, I want to…to…to…to ask you something."

"Okay."

"About Mack."

Hunter nodded, climbing off the machine. "Beer?"

Fitz nodded – it was technically after work hours, and he thought it might help. Hunter smiled and led them both out of the gym and towards the smaller kitchen. They grabbed a beer each and settled down on one of the couches tucked into a corner.

"Talk to me, Fitz."

"Mack said…I want to know…what do you think of Mack?"

Hunter smiled. "He's a good bloke."

"He betrayed us." And Fitz suddenly realised that Hunter was the perfect person to have spoken to – he'd been betrayed by Bobbi, though they'd been together in a way Fitz and Mack weren't.

"Yes, they did, tell me what the deal is, Fitz, man."

Fitz scrunched up his face but this is why he'd sort the other man out. "Mack locked me in the cont-tamination room when Barton dropped in from the roof. He left me there alone and put himself in danger."

"Course he did."

"But this is the second time he's done it. So I asked him about it."

"And he admitted to being arse over tit for you."

"He admitted to feelings."

"Oh, mate," Hunter said, taking a long drink from his beer. "I know Mack, and that man is utterly gone on you. Quite sweet really."

"Oh," Fitz said, slumping back into the chair.

"And I know how you look at him."

Fitz groaned. "I don't know if I can trust him."

"You can," Hunter said. "I don't always like the man, and he and Bobbi have a ways to go before I forgive them, but he has a very firm moral compass and he's going to do the right thing. If you forgive him, he won't lie to you like that again."

"Bobbi lied to you like that."

Hunter laughed. "Yeah, but Barbara and I have a different relationship to what you and Mack have, or could have. Neither of you are evil banshees, and you've already proven that you bring out good things in one another."

Fitz frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Saw you when I first got here, mate, you needed something that your old friends didn't know how to give you. And Mack was different too. Once you started working together things got better, didn't they?"

"Yeah, but he was spying."

Hunter shrugged. "He wouldn't become your friend for information. He's just not the type. If it had been me, I would have become your friend for the mission. Mack is a better guy than me."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah," Hunter said. "He's the one who would think to lock you in a double-locked contamination wing. I'm the type who'd hand you a gun and hope for the damned best."

"I don't mind being…h…given the gun," Fitz told him.

"I'd like to lock Bob in a room sometimes."

"She wouldn't…wouldn't…like allow."

"Let me?" Hunter guessed.

"Yeah, that."

"No, she wouldn't." Hunter agreed. "I believe you can trust Mack. I know I'm going to end up forgiving Bobbi."

"That's good to know, Lance," Bobbi's voice startled them both. They turned around and looked at her standing in the doorway.

"I'm not forgiving you now," Hunter told her, folding his arms across his chest.

"Thanks, H-Hunter," Fitz said, standing up.

Bobbi stepped in front of Fitz. "I know you don't have any reason to trust me, but Mack and I truly thought that Coulson was compromised and wasn't the true Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. but we never thought the rest of the team was working for HYDRA or compromised either. And I know that Mack hated lying to you."

"Then maybe he shouldn't have," Fitz said, and walked past her and out of the kitchen.

-)(-)(-


	12. Intimidation Tactics

**Intimidation Tactics**

Skye hunted down Hawkeye in the smaller of the two firing ranges. He'd reconfigured the range and was sitting in the middle fiddling with his bow.

"Clint, right?" she said, waking directly over to him.

"Skye," Clint said, smiling at her.

"I'm thinking about changing it to Daisy."

"Okay," Clint laid the bow down on the bench behind him.

"That's it?" Skye asked. "You're not going to ask why?"

"You didn't come here to discuss changing your name."

"No, I didn't."

"So, you can keep stalling or you can ask me the questions you came to ask."

"You're sticking around?" Skye asked.

Clint smiled at her. She flicked her fingers and the ground shook. The smile turned into a glare. "Is this the conversation where you threaten me?"

Skye shrugged. "No."

"So this is…?" Clint asked her.

"You're just going to move into our secret S.H.I.E.L.D. base?"

"Yep."

"With your long lost husband?"

Clint smiled at her. "Yep."

"Who you haven't seen in three years?"

"I thought he was dead."

"But now you've found him."

"Sometimes the world is a good place, just less often than it should be."

"And you're going to just join our team."

"Yep."

"And we should accept you because you're married to the old Coulson."

"He's still Phil Coulson, and he's still my husband."

"So, you are just going to join the team."

"Yep."

"Why should we trust you?"

"Ah," Clint said, smiling at Skye and climbing up to sit on the edge of a table. "You're being protective of Phil."

Skye folded her arms across her chest. She really didn't appreciate the way that Clint wasn't taking her seriously. She made the table under him shake a little – that might make him stop treating her like a cute little kid.

"What do you want to know, Daisy?"

"We've had trouble with specialists before," Skye said, she could feel the prickling of annoyance cooling at the name.

Clint nodded. "There is one thing I can promise you, Daisy Earthquake, I will never drop two of your members into the ocean without some form of evac plan. I would drop Nat like that but I don't think Fitz or Simmons is quite up to her standards yet."

"And I should just believe that?"

"You don't have to trust me, I don't trust you."

"What?" Skye asked, surprised.

Clint shrugged, picking up his bow and knocked an arrow. He turned his back on her, lined it up, and then span around and let it go, it hit the wall next to her head. "I don't know you so I have no reason to trust you. You want to make the ground shake, just understand that I used to hang out with the Hulk."

She gaped at him. Clint dropped his bow down onto the table.

"Now," he said, folding his arms across his chest. "Let's do this properly. You are protective of your team and of Phil, you have been betrayed by a member of your team that you had feelings for, you are still trying to cope with new abilities, and you don't believe that reunions ever end well because people change after they have been apart for any extended period of time."

Skye felt like he'd punched her, her fists curled tightly, and she took a step forward. He stared at her, not reaching for the bow, or reacting at all as she took two determined steps towards him. "Coulson told you?"

"Nope," Clint smiled. "I'm good at reading people. It's a hard won skill. Bobbi told me about Ward – Hunter told me about the feelings, as for the new abilities you were pretty defensive when you were showing them to Tony. And, if you weren't protective of your team and Phil we wouldn't be discussing this."

"And the reunions?" Skye asked, folding her arms across her chest.

Clint smiled. "Interesting thing about people is that they tell you more than they mean to. You're focussing on the fact that I've come back after three years."

"And?"

"That tells me you've found family after a long time – probably adopted which explains the name change, and you're here and not there so it was a disappointment. But you're thinking about changing your name to the one they gave you so it still made an impact."

Skye glared at him and Clint shrugged.

"And you just worked this out?

"I'm good at my job, and sometimes my job is knowing what people think they are hiding."

Skye stared at him for a few long minutes.

"Phil's going to be mad at me later," Clint said with a sigh. "He keeps telling me to play nice with new teams."

"For shooting an arrow at my head?" Skye asked. "Which isn't exactly a trustworthy action."

"If I was shooting an arrow at your head, Daisy, it would be in your head."

"Then why do it?"

"Why did you make the room shake?"

"To make you take me seriously."

Clint smiled. "And now we both know what's hiding in the other's back pocket. You can make the Earth move and I can shoot an arrow upside down being carried by a prancing horse."

"What?"

Clint smirked at her.

"I think you smirking at me is really annoying."

"Yep."

Skye frowned at him. "How did you and Coulson end up together?"

"I'm irresistible."

Skye gave Clint a judgemental look.

"Phil and I worked together for a long time. We suit."

"You suit?"

Clint nodded. "That's all you're getting from me about our relationship."

"Why?"

"None of your business," Clint said. "I don't actually owe you any answers, Daisy."

"Why do you keep calling me Daisy?"

"Because you said you were thinking about changing your name, how does it feel to be called Daisy?"

"You're really annoying."

Clint nodded enthusiastically. "It's one of my best qualities."

"If you can't even take me seriously, how can we think you're serious about being here?"

"I'm here for Coulson."

"But this isn't your life, how long are you planning on sticking around?"

"And we start to get to the real issue."

"The real issue?"

"I'm not going to take Coulson away. I'm a Specialist, and an Avenger, and Phil is the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. so I'm coming to him. That's what he and I do – how we've made it work. He'll go off and do the Director-y stuff, I'll go off and work with the Avengers. And in the end we'll always come back to one another."

Skye folded her arms across her chest and stared at Clint for a few long minutes.

"How about we start again – you don't assume I'm here to fuck the team over, and I don't take your intimidation attempts to heart."

Skye let out a long breath. "Deal."

"Oh good," Coulson said from behind Skye and she span around to look at him. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to ask you to take this outside before structural damage was caused."

Clint smirked at Coulson and Skye suspected the man had been listening to their conversation for a while.

Clint seemed to read her mind. "He's been there since you made the earth move."

"Clint."

"Phil."

"Please don't intimidate your new teammates by shooting arrows at them."

"Okay, sweetheart."

Phil cocked an eyebrow at him. "And Skye, please don't use your powers against your teammates unless actually threatened."

"He deserved it," Skye mumbled to herself.

"I'm sure he did, but it's still not a good way to foster a sense of team."

"We've come to an understanding, Daisy and I," Clint said.

"Daisy?" Phil asked.

Skye shrugged. "I'm thinking about changing it."

"I see," Phil said, but there was a slight frown line between his eyebrows. "Are the two of you done?"

"Yep," Clint said, picking up his bow and flicking it out until it folded into a staff. "I'm going to go and spar with Lance. It's gonna be a blast and I'm already late."

"You're sparring with Hunter?" Phil asked.

Skye couldn't resist watching a good sparring match and she had a feeling this was going to be an epic one, and a good chance to see what Clint could do. She had the urge to make popcorn and go down and watch. She slipped around Coulson while he wasn't paying attention and planned how she could check in with as many people as possible on the way to the kitchen.

"Yeah," Clint said in the room behind her. "I think it's going to be a lot of fun."

"I don't think that's what fun is," Coulson said before Skye turned the corner and couldn't hear them anymore.

-)(-)(-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are two more chapters to this but they aren't quite finished yet. Hopefully it will be done by the weekend though.


	13. Three Dates

**Three Dates**

"I really enjoy watching you do that," Bobbi told Mack as he was doing pull ups on the special bar that Koenig had had installed just for him.

Mack laughed, pulling himself up to the bar and dropping down slowly. He put a little more flex into it for his second pull up just for Bobbi. She laughed at him and went back to running. Mack lost himself in the muscle pull and the blessed emptiness of his mind when he exercised. He'd been plagued with thoughts about that last conversation with Fitz. He was not normally the person to stew on things he couldn't affect but this was Fitz, and he'd discovered that Fitz made the normal balance of his life spin strangely. But he didn't want to think on Fitz now – he'd been doing nothing but thinking about the Scottish man for days. He made his body work harder, forcing his thoughts out and crowding his mind with the burn of exercise and the count of each pull up, chin up, squat, and everything else he could do until his body was exhausted and he felt like he could sleep.

He wiped his head and neck down, rubbed at his bare arms, and then wrapped the towel around his neck before walking out of the gym. He was hungry but he couldn't be bothered with food so he went into the kitchen, grabbed a couple of the sandwiches that Koenig organised for them every day instead. He carried the sandwiches back to his room – it wouldn't be the first time he ate a sandwich in the shower and he'd be able to get clean and full and then crawl into bed. He just wanted to close his eyes but he felt sticky and needed a shower before he'd be able to rest.

Mack froze when he turned down the corridor that led to his rooms. Fitz was leaning into the wall next to his door. The Scot smiled at him weakly and Mack mentally shook himself and started walking again.

"Hey."

"Hi Mack, can we…t…speak?"

"Of course, Turbo, come in."

Fitz nodded his head, stepping into the room behind Mack.

"Sorry," Mack said, scooping up the shirt and pants from the day before and shoving them into his washing basket. "I got back late last night."

"You don't need to...like explain."

"Justify."

"Not quite," Fitz said, waving his hand like he was pushing the word away.

"What do you want to talk about, Fitz?"

"I spoke to Hunter."

Mack frowned, he was never sure if those words were good or bad – no matter who uttered them. "About?"

"You."

"Why?"

"Because Hunter has no reason to…to…to…" Fitz stopped and closed his eyes with frustration. "To opposite of prosecute."

"Defend?" Fitz nodded. "He has no reason to defend me?"

"Exactly," Fitz agreed. "You kidnapped him and held him against his will while you were working for Gonzales."

Mack had to take the fact he didn't call it 'betraying them all' a good sign. "What did he say?"

"That you have a strong moral compass and that you would never lie to me like that again."

"That's good to know," Mack said. "But, honestly, I don't really care what he thinks of me or the situation, only what you do."

Fitz smiled at him. "I like that you listen to me, even when I can't get the words out."

"You're interesting." Mack said. "It's not hard to listen to someone who is interesting."

"I want to forgive you," Fitz said. "I want to forgive you a lot. But I also don't trust you yet."

Mack knew it wasn't everything he wanted but it was a huge step forward. "What can I do to help you trust me again?"

"I need time."

"I can give you that."

Fitz smiled. "I have a q-q-q-query…no, no, question though."

"Okay," Mack said, a little wary at the way that Fitz stumbled over his words – a sure sign he was nervous.

"I'd like you to take me on a…a…dammit…a not a prune."

Mack froze. "Date?"

"Yes, that. I practised this before I came," Fitz said. "And I hate that I can't say it now that you're standing in front of me."

"How can I help?"

"You can't," Fitz said with frustration. "Just give me a…a…second."

Mack nodded, his stomach growling and Fitz's eyes opened wide. His eyes flicked over Mack and he coloured.

"You are holding two…two…named for the Earl – John Montagu."

Mack frowned down at the sandwiches in his hands with confusion for a few seconds and then realisation slammed into him. "The Earl of Sandwich?"

"Exactly."

"Would you like one?"

Fitz smiled. "You've just come back from the gym, didn't you?" Mack nodded. "So you were going to…to…wash and eat."

"Yeah."

"You should," Fitz said, standing up awkwardly.

Mack dropped the sandwiches on the bed and grabbed Fitz's wrist gently. "I'd prefer to have this conversation, Turbo, it's important to me."

Fitz smiled. "I'd like you to take me on three dates."

Mack felt his eyebrows squeezing together in confusion. "Three?"

"Yes," Fitz said loudly and then blinked in surprise. "One where you are going to…t-tell me about you. One where I will…will do that too."

"And the third?" Mack asked, wondering idly what research Fitz had been doing to come up with the number.

"For fun?" Fitz said awkwardly. "No, but yes, but not only. For…for…anything?"

"Just for us to enjoy," Mack started, hoping he understood and Fitz smiled at him encouragingly. "Without a specific purpose where we can do anything we want?"

"Yes."

"I can do that."

Fitz smiled with relief. "Good."

"Yes, it's really good. But, I don't understand why you would want to go on a date with me if you haven't forgiven me."

"I forgive you," Fitz said. "But I don't completely trust you yet. I do trust you to save my life and to be you but I need more…more time. I need more time."

Mack rubbed a hand down his face. "But this might help."

Fitz smiled. "I think so."

"For you, Turbo, I think so is pretty good."

Fitz ducked his head and smiled. "I should let you shower and eat."

Mack knew he should let Fitz go but he didn't really want to. "I can have a quick shower, five minutes, and we could watch something?"

Fitz looked down at the sandwiches and seemed to be thinking about it. Mack knew he was pushing but there was a light of possibility now and he wanted to get there before Fitz decided he couldn't ever come around to trusting him again.

Fitz smiled. "This isn't a date."

"No," Mack agreed.

Fitz smiled. "I'll go and get myself a sandwich while you shower. We can watch that…that…show you like."

Mack thought for a second. "Game of Thrones?"

"Yeah, that one."

"Okay, Turbo."

Fitz smiled. "I'll be back in a couple of minutes."

Mack nodded, and when Fitz was gone he ducked straight into the shower feeling happier and more hopeful than he had in a long time. He would take Fitz on three excellent dates and eventually he would win back the other man's trust in all things.

-)(-)(-


	14. Intel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is a week late but it's here. And I'm pretty happy with it. Thank you for your patience.

**Intel  
**

Clint slouched into Phil's chair as the screen in front of him connected. Nat appeared, the blue wall of his apartment behind her.

"What are you doing at my place?"

"Free wi-fi."

"It's not free," Clint said. "I pay for it."

"It's free to me."

Clint rolled his eyes at her, and she smiled at him.

"Where's Phil?"

"He's in a meeting, it's run over. Why are you at my apartment?"

Nat smirked at him again.

"Fine, what happened?"

"I don't think you're going to like the answers."

"But I still need to hear them, Tasha."

Nat smiled at him. "Being back with Phil has been good for you."

"I know that, but why do you think that?"

"You seem content."

"Is that Russian for having lots of sex and unable to stop smiling even when little Inhumans use their powers against you?"

Nat inclined her head in agreement.

"So, what happened with Fury?"

"I'm not going to talk about it until Phil gets there."

"Okay, so what are you been up to then?"

"Still looking for Rumlow."

"Any luck?"

"There are some rumblings about something going down in Africa, we're still trying to narrow the intel down."

"Intel for who?" Phil asked, stepping into the room.

"Rumlow."

Phil nodded. "It's nice to see you, Tasha, are you stealing Clint's internet again?"

Nat smiled at him.

"You knew about this?"

"Who do you think gave her the password?" Phil asked.

Nat smiled wider.

"What happened with Fury," Clint asked again.

"I tracked him down at the helicarrier facility," Nat started. "He had his reasons for re-creating your memories."

"What reasons?" Phil asked.

Clint didn't know how he could be calm in this, he did understand Phil had always had the ability to show one thing no matter what else he was feeling, but this was too much.

"You know him," Nat said. "He doesn't really share his motives with anyone."

"But you got him to talk."

"There's something I should say first," Nat said, body going a little more still than normal and Clint sat up straighter.

"What?" Phil asked freezing, obviously having picked up on Nat's body language.

"He told me too much too easily."

"Did he ask you to complete a mission?" Phil asked.

Nat shook her head, but there was a slight frown between her eyes. "He didn't even press me for information on what is happening with the search for Bucky or Rumlow."

"He's hiding something," Phil said firmly.

Nat nodded decisively. "Something big."

"It's always big with Nick."

Nat smiled at him. "Exactly."

"Did you look around?"

Nat nodded.

"And?" Clint asked.

"Hill made sure to escort me from the building and encouraged me to leave."

"Maria's involved?" Phil asked, his tone making it obvious that he had an idea.

"Definitely."

Phil was silent for a few minutes. "Have you talked to Steve and Tony?"

Nat shook her head.

"Don't," Phil said. "I'll look into it."

Nat nodded once, decisively.

"What did he say about the memories?" Clint asked, dragging the topic away from that decidedly disturbing thought.

"He said that because Coulson had been dead for so long and the chances of him going mad were so high he had to remove him from every part of his old life he could."

"But he left him in S.H.I.E.L.D.," Clint said. "The other subjects were all given lives outside of S.H.I.E.L.D.; if he needed to remove everything, why would he leave him in S.H.I.E.L.D. at all?"

"He didn't say it but it was his backdoor back to us if Coulson wasn't insane or if he ever found out what had happened."

"You're allowing your sentiment to get the better of you," Clint said.

Natasha glared at him.

"Nick only has a few people he always felt he could count on, and I'm one of them," Coulson said. "He'd keep me in S.H.I.E.L.D. for purely selfish reasons. The other subjects weren't high level operatives and were dispensable – at least from his perspective."

Nat nodded. "He had to remove Clint, and being married, from your life to stop you going back to the life that would break the brain conditioning."

"But the new memories were broken anyway," Phil said.

"And you didn't go mad," Nat said with a pleased smile.

"I did for a while," Phil said. "Turns out there was a message encoded in the DNA that made everyone who was injected need to find a Kree temple."

Nat's eyes flicked to Clint and back to Phil.

"It's okay, Tasha, I'm not controlled by that compulsion anymore."

"It's the anymore I don't like."

Phil smiled at her. Nat didn't show how much she cared except through the occasional gentle comment and the fact she was fiercely loyal and knee-cappingly honest with them.

"If I was still a danger May would have warned Clint."

"Bit hard when I'm still giving her the Tony treatment," Clint said with a broad smile.

"The Tony treatment?" Phil asked.

Nat rolled her eyes. "That thing Tony does when he's annoyed with you and he doesn't just give you the silent treatment he acts like you are a black hole in the room."

"It's fun to rile him into it," Clint said.

"Only for you," Nat told him, voice dry.

"Would now be a good time to get back to what Nick said?" Phil asked, looking between Nat on the screen and Clint next to him.

Tasha smiled at Phil. "I asked him why he didn't tell Phil about Clint when he knew that the brainwashing had broken."

"And?"

"He answered," Nat said, eyes locked with Phil. Clint had never actually learned to understand their silent conversations but even he could understand the red flags raised when Nick Fury actually answered a question that was posed to him. Especially one that was about one of his many secrets.

But sometimes Clint wasn't very patient. "And?"

"And he said that he thought it might be too dangerous to make people aware that you were back from the dead."

"Dangerous to who?" Phil asked.

"The Avengers," Nat told him.

"But why?" Phil asked. "How could that be dangerous to the Avengers?"

"I don't know," Nat told him. "And Fury wasn't willing to tell me. Said it was safer for everyone if no one knew."

"That sounds more like Nick," Phil said with a wry smile.

"You mean shadows and lies?" Clint asked.

"Our lives are shadows and lies," Phil said.

"And you two dated, got married, bought a retirement house, and lived your beautiful," Clint couldn't resist snorting at Nat's twee tone when she said that, "love in shadows and lies."

Clint shrugged. "Not offering information isn't the same as lying."

Nat cocked an eyebrow and stared at him. Clint smirked back at her.

"I'll tell May that's how you feel," Phil said.

Clint turned around and glared at his husband. Phil smiled at him innocently.

"How are you coping with the secret being out?" Tasha asked them.

Clint turned to look at Phil who smiled at him gently.

"It's fine," Phil said, not looking back at the screen.

"Good," Clint countered.

Phil turned back to the screen and his mouth quirked.

"You both disgust me."

"We're very happy for us too," Phil told her.

Nat's lips twitched. "When are you next going to the farmhouse?"

Phil nudged Clint with his knee and Clint shrugged. "When do you want to go?"

"After Africa, I can give you and Phil a few days to have sex in every room before I arrive."

Clint laughed. "Need more than a few days, there are a lot of rooms."

"And Phil was dead for three years, not still in the second honeymoon phase?"

"As delightful as I find the two of you discussing my sex life."

"Our sex life," Clint corrected proudly.

Phil folded his arms across his chest and stared at Clint.

"I'm proud of us," Clint said. "Especially you, you're not young anymore, Phil."

"Blue pills?" Nat asked.

Phil made a displeased noise.

"Nope," Clint said. "The alien DNA hasn't affected that at all."

Nat opened her mouth but Phil put up a hand to stop her. "Before you make any jokes about being bottled up for three years please wait until I leave."

"Okay, sweetheart," Clint said with a smile.

"I'll leave you both to it then," Phil said, standing up. He paused to lean down and kiss Clint passionately. He pulled away, winked at Nat, and then turned towards the door. "It's good to see you, Tasha," Phil said. "If you hear anything else please let me know."

"Of course, Phil, and I'm really glad you're happy."

Phil smiled at her. "Talk to you later."

Clint waited until Phil had left and turned back to Nat. "What didn't you tell him?"

"Nothing, not this time, not about this," Nat assured him.

"Even about Fury."

"Especially about Fury, something big is happening and he's not involving the Avengers."

Clint sat back and nodded. A few minutes passed and Clint pushed the thoughts about Fury and what he was doing to the part of his mind that would think on it later. "I'm cancelling my internet."

"You can't, I called and changed your account's master password."

Clint wasn't surprised. But he'd have to find a way of getting even with her. That always worked best when she was most expecting it because then her guard was less likely to end with him missing a limb or an eye.

"You need any help with Rumlow?" Clint asked.

"We're training Wanda, she's powerful but she doesn't have the basic skills. I only need to deal with one smart arse when I'm training people."

"Steve's going to be mad you called him that."

"Steve will know you're stirring."

Clint shrugged. "Let me know when you're going so I can keep an eye on the area."

Nat quirked her lips.

"Going out with this team isn't the same."

"You miss me."

"Always."

"I'll call you for the mission after Africa."

Clint smiled at her. "I can probably get away for a trip to the farmhouse even if Phil can't. We'll go down there and I can plant some more fruit trees for Phil."

Nat flat out smiled at him. "You happy?"

"Yep."

"Good," Nat said. "I'm going to raid your wine and chocolate collection."

Clint couldn't even argue with her, just with the black screen. She knew that wine collection was Phil's…she was really going after his expensive bottle of Pyatizvyozdnaya vodka or the even more expensive bottle of Youri Dolgoruki vodka. She was going to drink the entire damn bottle. Clint swore at the black screen and decided that Phil was going to have to help him improve his mood.

**The End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know there wasn't much of an explanation but really what can you expect from Nick Fury. Plus, after seeing CACW and being possibly inspired to write a sequel and wondering where Fury was I decided I couldn't just make it too neat. I hope you enjoyed this story, I had a lot of fun writing it.


End file.
